title: string with negative value converted to float
body: <p>I have django/python project, and a user enters a negative value as a string. But when I try to convert the string to a float I get an error.</p>
  
  <p>I understand that I am not using the hyphen or negative symbol but can not figure out how to replace the dash with a negative symbol. </p>
  
  <pre><code>import os, sys
  from moneyed import Money
  from moneyed.localization import format_money
  
  
  moneystring = str('-$180.00')
  print Money(float(moneystring.strip("$").replace(',', '')), 'USD')
  </code></pre>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "./moneytest.py", line 31, in 
        print Money(float(moneystring.strip("$").replace(',', '')), 'USD')
    ValueError: could not convert string to float: -$180.00</p>
  </blockquote>