this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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IV is used exclusively as 4 (except for clocks as someone else already commented) since the 15th century. Ancient Romans used both writing, IIII and IV.
Interesting, are there instances of other numerals having variants or was 4 a unique situation?
Well played.
I thought the exact thing when I typed it haha
I have even seen, although incredibly rarely, IIV to mean 3. It's the same number of characters as III so there's no reason not really to do it.
I think it might have been done because it was more consistent with IV equalling 4.