V and whatnot

[Burns, Erik]

Foax:

Tantalizing line from David Boyle's book "The Sum of Our Discontent":

"Italian merchants increasingly used zero as an underground sign for 'free
trade.' Bootleggers and smugglers embraced the idea with enthusiasm. Like
the V sign across the continent under Nazi tyranny, zero became a symbol of
numerical freedom, a kind of medieval counterculture."

Anyone know anything more about this use of the "V" sign under the Nazis?
Can't recollect ever seeing anything about this (other than, of course,
"V-Day" - and it is possible Boyle's just making a point about use of the
"V" sign, for victory, among the Allies during the war).

The mention of Vs & zeroes, obviously, rang Pynchonic bells. (And the idea
that "V" a secret symbol of the counterculture under the Nazis sparks all
kinds of ideas about the Nazi use of "V" to name their rockets...)

etb