The Writer's Desk Book / Being a Reference Volume upon Questions of Punctuation, Capitalization, Spelling, Division of Words, Indention, Spacing, Italics, Abbreviations, Accents, Numerals, Faulty Diction, Letter Writing, Postal Regulations, Etc.

by William Dana Orcutt

{98}

If the lesser number is placed before the greater, the lesser is to be deducted from the greater; thus IV signifies one less than 5, i.e., 4; IX, 9; XC, 90.

If the lesser number be placed after the greater, the lesser is to be added to the greater; thus VI signifies one more than 5, i.e., 6; XI, 11; CX, 110.

A horizontal stroke over a numeral denotes a thousand; thus

signifies five thousand;

, fifty thousand;

, a thousand times a thousand, or a million.