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On clocks with Roman numerals why is 4 written as IIII and not IV?
The British Horological Institute, the organization for British watchmakers, gives three answers:
1) Being opposite VIII, IIII gives a better visual balance than IV.
2) IIII was an older alternative to IV as 4. The BHI page has a rather far-fetched reason for the change, "The Roman god Jupiter's name, when written in Latin, begins with IV, and it seems it would have been considered blasphemous to use it as a mere number". Sorry, but this is fantasy (even if a widely-held view), suggested by the fact that YH (15) and YW (16) in Hebrew numerals are not used because they spell out shortened forms of the name of God (YHWH). I don't believe there's any evidence at all of this pickiness in Latin, and without evidence it is just a poor guess. My own understanding is that IIII is easy to confuse with III and so IV was brought in.
3) The BHI page quotes _Famous Watch Houses_ by Introna and Ribolini: "The reason for this goes back to 1364 when Charles V scolded a watchmaker for writing IV on a tower clock. The watchmaker, Henry De Vick, argued his case, but the King brusquely replied: 'I am never wrong' and so IV had to become IIII"
My unromantic opinion is that (1) is the correct answer - (2) explains why there are two alternative forms, but not why IIII was selected - after all, both IV and IIII were in use when clocks began to be made.
It's also been suggested that IV and VI are easily confused: true, but then so would IX and XI. But then early clocks often had VIIII for IX and that IS very hard to tell from VIII.
[Just looked round my house in the UK: we've two clocks with Roman numerals, one Victorian, one modern, both have IIII not IV].
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Digital clock of the Roman numerals
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