Excerpt from Recreations in Mathematics
Counting a series of things and keeping tally of the tens on the fingers were processes used by primitive peoples. From the ten fingers arose ultimately the decimal system of numeration. Recording the results of counting was done by the Egyptians and other ancient nations by means of strokes and hooks; for one thing a single stroke | was made, for two things two strokes || were used, and so on up to ten which was represented by ?. Then eleven was written |?, twelve ||?, and so on up to twenty, or two tens, which was represented by ??. In this way the numeration proceeded up to a hundred, for which another symbol was employed.
Names for ||, |||, ||||, ??, etc., appear in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, but a special symbol for each name is not used. Probably the Hindoos first invented such symbols, and passed them on to the Arabs, through whom they were introduced into Europe.
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Greek Notation
The Greeks used an awkward notation for recording the results of counting.
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