SC - prices in 1520

[Håkan Hedrén]

hmmm....
I have seen the iiii instead of iv somewhere too, can't remember where though.
Nowadays I think there's some sort of convention that says it should be written
in the shortest form possible but I have no idea when it was adopted.
The MCMXCIX vs MIM part is a bit trickier to explain.
With roman numerals the year is built up step by step, just like we do with
Arabic notation eg 1000+900+90+9=1999 so it works in the same way as our base 10
system.
So, 1000=M, 900=CM, 90=XC, 9=IX and you have MCMXCIX.  If, on the other hand you
would write MIM you would write the 1000 part alright but then you'd suddenly be
writing 999 in one step and thus violate the rule.  This latter rule outranks
the 'as-short-as-possible' rule.
Another view of it is to look at the various numerals used:
I  V  X  L  C  D and M
You see I subtracted from V or X but none of the others, X subtracted from L or
C but not D or M.  Thus we can boldly declare that no numeral may be subtracted
from a numeral that lies more than 2 steps to the right of itself on the IVXLCDM
line above.

Angus, with his 0.16 SEK

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> Christina van Tets wrote:
> >
> >(thinking of which, can anyone explain why this current mundane
> > year is being touted as MCMXCIX, instead of MCMIM or just plain MIM?).
>
> Probably because Roman numerals aren't really in a system we'd identify
> as base ten. Note that numeric expressions like iv and iiii are used
> interchangably in period, and it's worth remembering that where  years
> are concerned, we may have inherited some kind of Millenial Awe. I don't
> know, maybe identifying the year so clearly in terms of the dreaded
> approaching M hastens the end of the world or something. Stranger things
> have happened.
>
> Adamantius
> --
> Phil & Susan Troy
>
> troy at asan.com
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