T?lis B?auns
re. Tally sticks using numerals as a low-tech accounting system. One hypothesis is that Etrusco-Roman numerals actually derive from notches on tally sticks, which continued to be used by Italian and Dalmatian shepherds into the 19th century. Every fifth notch was double cut i.e. ?, ?, ?, ?, etc.), and every tenth was cross cut (X), IIII?IIIIXIIII?IIIIXII..., much like European tally marks today. The tenth V or X along the stick received an extra stroke. Thus 50 was written variously as N, ?, K, ?, ?, etc., but perhaps most often as a chicken-track shape like a superimposed V and I: ?. This had flattened to ? (an inverted T) by the time of Augustus, and soon thereafter became identified with the graphically similar letter L..