The Magic and Mystery of America’s Money

The dollar sign thus supposedly evolved, according to this theory, to represent two pillars wrapped in a banner (recalling that the earliest versions of the $ sign included two vertical lines, not one). But Masonic author Albert Pike has pointed out that the coins of ancient Tyre featured serpents coiled around trees, representing the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge – an equivalent symbol to the Caduceus. And author Ignatius Donnelly (Atlantis: The Antediluvian World) stated his belief that the dollar sign represented the Pillars of Hercules entwined with the serpent of Genesis.