Not just slashed zeroes/ohs

Paul Koning paulkoning at comcast.net
Wed Apr 27 15:49:06 CDT 2022



> On Apr 27, 2022, at 4:38 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> On 4/27/22 10:51, Craig Ruff via cctech wrote:
>> Having gone through many mathematics courses it was common to also place a slash on the letter Z to distinguish it from the numeral 2. Also for persons from Europe where they slashed the numeral 7 to distinguish it from a numeral 1 that commonly had an initial small upward stroke at the top when hand written.
> 
> Not just a small initial upward stroke on the "1", but in some European
> countries (I'm thinking of Germany and the Netherlands), some make that
> stroke at least half the height of the number, if not more.  I have no
> idea where the long top stroke originated.

I've seen that occasionally, but it certainly is not Dutch standard handwriting -- at least not in the 1960s when I learned to write there.

I just read a book from around 1900 (at gutenberg.org) "The key to the family deed chest" which has in chapter VI a chart showing what the digits looked like in the 12th through 16th centuries.  Amusingly, some of them (like 7) have one shape in even numbered centuries and a different one in odd numberd centuries.  :-)

	paul




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