first coin to use the $ symbol

To answer your question, the earliest widely recognized coins were minted in the ancient kingdom of Lydia (in what is now western Turkey) around the 7th century BCE. These first coins were typically produced in electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, and featured stamped symbols such as lions and bulls. The invention is commonly attributed to Lydia, with later developments spreading to neighboring Greek cities and other regions. If you’re asking about the first coin to bear the dollar sign ($) specifically, that symbol arose much later in modern times as a shorthand for the peso and other currencies, and is not a feature of the earliest coins.