Trouble with $ in script

[digitalwav]

I have the following command that runs fine at the linux command prompt:

/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nt -H 192.168.0.7 -p 12489 -v COUNTER -l "\\MSSQL\$CMP:Transactions\\Transactions"

Note the escaped $

Now, when this command is packaged into a perl script and assigned to a variable like this:

$transactions = `/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nt -H 192.168.0.7 -p 12489 -v COUNTER -l "\\MSSQL\$CMP:Transactions\\Transactions"`;

It doesn't work. In stead of outputting 22 it outputs zero. I am positive it has to do with the $ but I have no idea what to do about it!