December 12, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



849 



edition of 1835 contains the I and that there 

 was a still earlier edition which he had not 

 seen. I had stated that, in 1802, William A. 

 Washington used the S; Mr. E. Tobitt, of the 

 Omaha Public Library, informs me that an 

 original ledger of George Washington himself, 

 owned by the library, contains the $ fre- 

 quently. The earliest date of the ledger is 

 January 1, 1799. It would be interesting to 

 receive reports about older Washington ledgers 

 on this point. 



Of value, by way of corroboration of our 

 conclusions, is the following quotation from a 

 letter of Professor H. E. Bolton, of the Uni- 

 versity of California. He says : 



I see that your conclusion is just what mine was, 

 with the difference that yours is based upon wide 

 research, in different languages, while mine was 

 based upon incidental observations in connection 

 with work on Spanish manuscripts. 



Most interesting information relating to the 

 early use of the dollar mark is contained in a 

 letter which I received recently from Mr. 

 Augustus H. Fiske, of Cambridge, Mass. Mr. 

 Fiske points out that the modern dollar mark 

 occurs in a diary of Ezra L'Hommedieu for 

 the year 1776. This date is two years earlier 

 than the earliest occurrence of the modern dol- 

 lar mark that is mentioned in my article in 

 the Popular Science Monthly. Mr. L'Hom- 

 medieu was a native of Southold, Long Is- 

 land. After graduating from Yale he prac- 

 tised law in New York City. He was a mem- 

 ber of the New York Provincial Assembly 

 which, on July 10, 1776, styled itself the Con- 

 vention of the Representatives of the State of 

 New York. During a portion of his service 

 he kept a diary stating what took place in the 

 assembly. This is still in the possession of 

 his descendants. The first date mentioned in 

 the diary is June 10, 1776. It ends abruptly 

 on December 5, 1776. 



Before August 21, 1776, most of the sums 

 of money mentioned in the diary are expressed 

 in pounds and shillings. When dollars are 

 mentioned, the word " dollars " is written out 

 in full. On August 21 occurs the first use of 

 the dollar mark in the diary (see tracing 1). 

 I quote the following from Mr. Fiske's letter; 



The item reads, Treasurer to advance to Capt. 

 Wisner $580 for bounty. On P. M. Aug. 24th. 

 Hugh Doyle is to receive 8 dollars. Here the word 

 is spelled out once more. Meanwhile English 

 money continues in other items. Under date of 

 A. M. Aug. 28tli. the treasurer is to advance $10 

 for removing military stores from N. Y. Here we 

 have the second occurrence of the $ sign (trac- 

 ing 2). 



During the nest few weeks appropriations in 

 dollars become more frequent, though the English 

 money still predominates and the dollars are still 

 spelled out. On A. M. Oetr. 2d, a loan of $100,000 

 is obtained from the Continental Congress (trac- 

 ing 3), and on Oct. 3d and 4th the same sum is re- 

 ferred to in a similar way (tracings 4 and 5). On 

 the latter date the treasurer is also to pay 

 $6412 2/3 bounty money to the rangers (tracing 

 6). The $ sign now appears more frequently. On 

 Octr 11th both A. M. and P. M. it appears in ref- 

 erence to the loan of $100,000 and an advance of 

 $200 to the troops of Orange County (tracings 7 

 and 8) ; and the $100,000 again appears on Octr. 

 14th A. M. (tracing 9). 



Meanwhile references to English money con- 

 tinue, but only one to dollars, written out, on A. M. 

 Oct 15th. That same day $10,000 was appropri- 

 ated to buy clothing for the troops (tracing 10), 

 and the next morning $100 was given to encourage 

 the manufacture of flax (tracing 11). 



The next two weeks contain fourteen items of 



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English money and it is not till P. M. Octr. 31st 

 that Uriah Mitchell applies for cash on account of 

 wages as a daily rider and received $100 on ac- 

 count (tracing 12). The appropriation was ap- 

 proved the next morning and referred to as $100 

 (tracing 13). English money is now referred to 

 until P. M. Nov. 9th when E. Benson Esqr., is to 



