They will only be interpreted as scalars if you eval them... if a $ is in a string it is only a $... example 
$test = 'ab$cd';
print "$test\n"; #prints ab$cd\n
#only when you actually have the $ in double quotes...
print "ab$cd\n";
#do you need to worry about it

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Update but if you were evalling it you could do 
eval "\Q$test\E";

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the \Q \E goes through a string escaping (\$) all non word characters.
                - Ant

In reply to Re: Reading special characters from file? by suaveant
in thread Reading special characters from file? by jbwiv

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