labels - Can the "$" symbol be safely considered as universal when making a graphic depicting money?

Want to get a sense of any best practices of using the "$" dollar sign in the context of an image in order to depict a universal idea of money.

UPDATE: My task was to create an icon/graphic used in an e-commerce checkout process which depicted the idea of an 'invoice'. It had to make sense in a global context (not just USD). Here is the exploration I had done:

And here is the icon I ended up picking (without a symbol):

Thanks for all the insights and weigh-ins everyone offered. VERY helpful!

Answer

It may very well be universally understood but I would be concerned (or at least keep in mind) the user's reaction to this symbol. Would a Russian (a patriotic Russian) be happy to see money be symbolized by the US dollar?

Is there any chance that he may think poorly of your site / app for using the dollar sign?

I don't know your customer base but at first blush I think this would be a concern - not that the $ sign is (or is not) universally recognized - but whether it is understood and appreciated as a symbol of money in general.