Need help with text processing / string split

try this:
x <- read.table('/temp/tbl.txt', sep = ',', header = TRUE, as.is = TRUE)
# remove commas from the Cost column
x$Cost <- gsub(',', '', x$Cost)
# split the Cost
temp <- strsplit(x$Cost, "\\$")  # "$" is special, so it is escaped
temp <- do.call(rbind, temp)  # create a matrix
mode(temp) <- 'numeric' # convert to numeric
x$Cost1 <- temp[, 2]
x$Cost2 <- temp[, 3]
head(x)
Address      Township       Parcel
          Sale.Date
2                          10 PACER LN East Norriton 330006712005
Bnkrptcy-PP to6/29/2011
3                           6 BALA AVE  Lower Merion 400003292007
    STAYED5/25/2011
4             109 STONY WAY, Condo 109 East Norriton 330008575662
Bnkrptcy-PP to6/29/2011
5                   613 NORTHAMPTON RD East Norriton 330006103002
Postponed to5/25/2011
6                      67 HIGH GATE LN      Whitpain 660002716764
Pstpnd by CO to5/25/2011
7 236 Arundel Ave aka 236 Arundel Road       Horsham 360000136008
  For Sale5/25/2011
                 Costs               Cost     Cost1   Cost2
2 $173,933.60$2,410.28 $173933.60$2410.28 173933.60 2410.28
3   $264,640.36$168.00  $264640.36$168.00 264640.36  168.00
4  $70,029.04$1,483.59  $70029.04$1483.59  70029.04 1483.59
5 $254,873.19$1,772.62 $254873.19$1772.62 254873.19 1772.62
6 $404,507.59$1,947.90 $404507.59$1947.90 404507.59 1947.90
7 $252,472.27$1,034.51 $252472.27$1034.51 252472.27 1034.51

I used screen scraping to extract some information and put it into a table
called tbl. Now I want to modify the table a bit so the data can be more
useful. Here's the code I used:

library(XML)
rm(list=ls())
url <-
"http://webapp.montcopa.org/sherreal/salelist.asp?saledate=05/25/2011"
tbl <-data.frame(readHTMLTable(url))[2:405, c(3,5,6,8,9)]
names(tbl) <- c("Address", "Township", "Parcel", "Sale Date", "Costs")

tbl is attached as txt for your convenience. Entries in the last column of
the dataframe (tbl$Cost) appear as follows: $173,933.60$2,410.28 ?.
http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/file/n3524793/tbl.txt tbl.txt

How do I:

1. Split the string
2. Have the two values show up as actual numbers that can be used
3. Put the numbers in two separate columns of the dataframe.

In other words $173,933.60$2,410.28 would show up as 173933.60 in one column
and 2410.28 would show up in a second column of tbl

I tried using strsplit but I could not get it working properly.

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What is the problem that you are trying to solve?

Need help with text processing / string split

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