one of the last great mysteries of typography, an epic challenge to put all pieces of the puzzle together sensibly one day … I bothered with this issue a few years ago, too. The p/s approach seems to be a hot candidate, as is the pictographic ‘pillars of Hercules’ theory.
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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_81/December_1912/The_Evolution_of_the_Dollar_Mark#/media/File:PSM_V81_D534_The_modern_dollar_mark_in_the_making.png
From an article in Popular Science, 1912.
I bothered with this issue a few years ago, too. The p/s approach seems to be a hot candidate, as is the pictographic ‘pillars of Hercules’ theory.
Hope we’ll know some day.