I think it is just the trailing space in the pattern which is tripping you. I tried: 
#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;

my $lamb = 'wolf';
my $text = 'Mary had a little $lamb.';
$text =~ s/(\$\w+)/$1/eeg;
print $text . "\n";
# output: Mary had a little wolf.

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Phil

In reply to Re: expanding quoted referenced data by philcrow
in thread expanding quoted referenced data by Anonymous Monk

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