524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



symbol with the figure 8. We have seen four varieties of this theory. 

 The Spanish dollars were, as a rule, equivalent to eight smaller monetary 

 units, universally know in Spain as " reales " or " reals." The " pillar 

 dollar" shows an 8 between the two pillars. The Spanish dollar was 

 often called a " piece of eight." What guess could be more natural 

 than that the 8 between two pillars suggested the abbreviation |8|, 

 which changed into $ ? So attractive is this explanation that those 

 who advanced it did not consider it worth while to proceed to the 

 prosaic task of finding out whether such symbols were actually em- 

 ployed in financial accounts by merchants of English and Latin 

 America. Other varieties of theorizing claimed a union of P and 8 

 ("piece of eight") 9 or of E and 8 ("eight reales") 10 or of |8| (the 

 vertical lines being marks of separation) 11 or of 8/. 12 The " P8 

 theory " has been given, in Webster's " Unabridged Dictionary," not 

 in its first edition, but in the editions since the fourth (1859) or fifth 

 (1864). It is claimed that this widely accepted theory rests on manu- 

 script evidence. 13 One writer who examined old tobacco account books 

 in Virginia reproduces lithographically the fancifully shaped letter p 

 used to represent the " piece of eight " in the early years. This part 

 of his article is valuable. But where it comes to the substantiation of 

 the theory that $ is a combination of P and 8, and that the $ had a 

 purely local evolution in the tobacco districts of Virginia, his facts do 

 not bear out his theory. He quotes only one instance of manuscript 

 evidence and the reasoning in connection with that involves evident 

 confusion of thought. 13 To us the " P 8 theory " seemed at one time 

 the most promising working hypothesis, but we were obliged to abandon 

 it, because all evidence pointed in a different direction. We sent in- 

 quiries to recent advocates of this theory and to many writers of the 

 present day on early American and Spanish-American history, but 

 failed to get the slightest manuscript evidence in its favor. None of 

 the custodians of manuscript records were able to point out facts in 

 support of this view. We ourselves found some evidence from which 

 a superficial observer might draw wrong inferences. A few manu- 

 scripts, particularly one of the year x 1696 from Mexico (Oaxaca), now 

 kept in the Ayer Collection of the Newberry Library in Chicago, give 

 abbreviations for the Spanish word "pesos" (the Spanish name for 

 Spanish dollars) which consist of the letter p with a mark over it that 

 looks much like a horizontal figure 8. This is shown in Fig. 2. Is it 

 an 8 ? Paleographic study goes against this conclusion : the mark 

 signifies " os," the last two letters in " pesos." This is evident from 



9 M. Townsend, op. cit., p. 420; Scribner's Magazine, Vol. 42, 1907, p. 515. 



10 M. Townsencl, op. cit., p. 420. 



"Notes and Queries (London), 5th S., Vol. VII., p. 317. 



12 Scribner's Magazine, Vol. 42, 1907, p. 515. 



13 American Historical Record, Vol. III., p. 271. 



