Since the Alternate Number System (ANS) uses an extra digit for the base value, and since modern civilization works mostly in base ten, therefore we need a unique symbol for the digit ten. In the hexadecimal system, the capital letters from A to F are used for the digits ten to fifteen. Therefore for familiarity, I will use the symbol A for the digit ten on this web site.
However, perhaps there is a more logical symbol that would reflect the
idea better. Any symbol that is not a valid numeric digit will do. Of course
the digit zero is not a good choice, since this would cause confusion
between numbers in the existing and alternate systems.
The first logical symbol that comes to mind, is a zero with a vertical
line through it. This would be a combination of the symbols 1 and 0 that
are used for the number ten in our existing system. However, this is not
one of the basic ASCII characters on the keyboard, so it would be difficult
to implement on the computer. In addition, there is already confusion between
the letter O and the digit 0, so such a symbol would only make things more
complicated. Another possiblity is the capital letter T to stand for Ten.
However other languages use different words for ten, so this too is not a
good choice.
So unless someone else has a better idea, I will retain the capital letter
A to represent the digit ten.
June 1998 - the @ symbol was suggested by Dr. Nico Benschop as another
logical possibility.
August 1999 - the letter X was suggested by Russell Harper as another
logical possibility.
Enjoy.