April 2, 2013. April 1 isn’t just the Fool’s Day, it is also the birthday of the dollar symbol. According to the most popular etymology, the $ sign was first used by the New Orleans-based businessman Oliver Pollock in 1773, SKB-Bank’s press service says.

The United States used to rely on the Spanish piasters heavily at the time; the traditional abbreviation for the currency that was used in all the documents was PS. It is believed that Pollock started using an overlaying combination of P and S in his book entries and later on tried to save time by using an S crossed by two vertical lines. The said symbol first appeared in print in April 1797, and so April 1 is considered the dollar’s birthday.

In any case, this is not the only version on the origin of the $ sign: there is a theory that says it stems from the digit 8, from the national emblem on the Spanish coins, and from overlapping letters U and S (United States).