No, Toronto, Hamilton didn’t “steal” the idea for their new sign from us

Last week, Hamilton approved a new sign that will sit outside its city hall: eight lit-up letters that spell out HAMILTON. Sound familiar? Toronto’s Twitter world was predictably miffed, accusing the Hammer of ripping off the sign at Nathan Phillips Square. But as is often the case on social media, the facts about this alleged act of plagiarism were a little wobbly. Turns out we weren’t the first city to come up with the genius idea of spelling out our own name. Here’s the proof.

In review, here’s our pride and joy:

And this is what Hamilton’s will look like:

Of course, we also accused Ottawa of stealing the idea:

Amsterdam’s sign is generally accepted to be the one that started the trend (though, honestly, who knows anymore?):

Lyon didn’t even change the colour scheme:

At least Brisbane got a little creative:

Cancún gets extra point for the best backdrop: 

Montevideo’s is pretty lively:

For the Olympics, Rio put up not just one sign:

But two:

Portugal clued in, too:

Cincinnati’s had this one for a long time:

And you may or may not have seen this guy before: