Oliver Pollock Oliver Pollock ( 1737 , Coleraine , Ireland – December 17 , 1823 , Pinckneyville , Mississippi ) was a merchant and financier of the American Revolutionary War , of which he has long been considered a historically undervalued figure . He is often attributed with the creation of the US Dollar sign in 1778 . Early life . Pollock sailed to North America at the age of 23 in 1760 with his father from his native Ireland to Philadelphia . He settled in Cumberland County , Pennsylvania . Two years later , he began his career as a merchant , trading from port - to - port with the Spaniards in the West Indies , and was headquartered in Havana , Cuba . It was here that he became close with the Governor - General Alejandro O ' Reilly . O ' Reilly was later made the Governor of Louisiana by the King of Spain . Pollock began working as a merchant in New Orleans and , through his relationship with O ' Reilly , was favorably received by Spanish Louisiana ' s officials , who granted him free trade within the city . He became the most successful businessman in the city as a result of the scarcity of provisions at the time , bringing in a desperately needed shipment of flour . However instead of taking advantage of the colonists , Pollock sold the flour for half the going price . In 1770 he married Margaret O ' Brien of New Orleans , with whom he had eight children before her death in 1799 . By the outbreak of the American Revolution , Pollock had become very wealthy and had significant political influence . Pollock stayed in New Orleans for eight years and also worked as a plantation owner and selling land in Baton Rouge . Revolutionary War period . In 1777 he was appointed " commercial agent of the United States at New Orleans " , making him the representative of the colonies in the city . He used his fortune to finance American operations in the west , and the successful campaign of General George Rogers Clark in Illinois 1778 occurred with his financial support . In the same year he borrowed $ 70 , 000 from Spanish Louisiana ' s Governor Bernardo de Gálvez , but the financial needs of the country at the time left him in a loss . Pollock served as Gálvez ' s aide - de - camp during the Spanish campaign against the British that began with the Spanish declaration of war in June 1779 . Gálvez and the Spanish troops swept through Louisiana , Alabama , and Florida , defeating the British with the Capture of Fort Bute and campaigning through the victorious Siege of Pensacola in 1781 . Pollock ' s diplomacy assisted in the surrender of Fort Panmure at Natchez , Mississippi . In 1783 he was appointed an agent by the United States in Havana , where he would be imprisoned for his debts a year later , amounting to $ 150 , 000 . In 1785 he was released on parole and returned to Philadelphia , where he met a sympathetic Robert Morris , another financier of the war who had also incurred debts as a result . Morris however had collected a sum of money to buy Pollock time from his debtors . Both Congress and the state of Virginia had continually refused to clear his debts from the war , until 1791 when congress passed an act discharging them , but in the same year he would return in poverty to Cumberland County . Late life . He ran for Congress three times , but was not elected , despite garnering the popular vote . In 1800 he again found himself in debt , but within a few years had accumulated property . He remarried in 1805 , to Winifred Deady ; they had no children . He finally retired in 1819 to Mississippi , where he stayed until his death .