IN GOD WE TRVST?

How could we spell our company name incorrectly?

You’re not alone if you ask why there is a V where you believe there should be the letter U.

Here’s why…it's Easy if You Speak Latin

The common language worldwide for coin inscriptions is Latin, and in Latin the letters U and V are the same, and are the 20th letters in the Roman alphabet. They are both a vowel and a consonant, so that the Romans would have spelt Venus as VENVS, the first V being pronounced vee as a consonant, and the second V being pronounced uh as a vowel.

The fashion at the time was to use the Roman alphabet for classically themed artwork. The Roman alphabet was essentially the same as ours except that it only had 24 letters. I and V could act as vowels, consonants, or numbers. You had to decipher from the context, just like we do with the letter C. If you saw the letter V in a place where a vowel was needed you automatically replaced it with a U sound when speaking or reading. This also applies for I and J sounds.

It wasn't until the Middle Ages that the people started to use U and J to keep the sound separate, and these 2 letters were added to the alphabet.