@nojhan @globalmuseum Now that's a logical design! If you need a numbering system for communicating with aliens, that would work.

The Roman numerals are basically abbreviations of the words. However, Romans used the abacus and even had a pocket abacus with sliders. Was there some notation used by bookkeepers to directly record the base 10 numbers off the abacus? I'd think someone would have invented one just out of laziness.