Currency_sign

Currency symbol

Currency symbol

Symbol used to represent a monetary currency's name

For the symbol representing a generic currency, see Currency sign (generic). For three-letter currency codes, see ISO 4217.

A currency symbol or currency sign is a graphic symbol used to denote a currency unit. Usually it is defined by a monetary authority, such as the national central bank for the currency concerned.

Symbols of the four most widely held reserve currencies (dollar, euro, yen, pound)
This article contains Unicode currency symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of currency symbols.

A symbol may be positioned in various ways, according to national convention: before, between or after the numeric amounts: €2.50, 2,50€ and 2Dollar sign with two vertical lines50.

Symbols are neither defined nor listed by international standard ISO 4217, which only assigns three-letter codes.

Usage

When writing currency amounts, the location of the symbol varies by language. For currencies in English-speaking countries and in most of Latin America, the symbol is placed before the amount, as in $20.50. In most other countries, including many in Europe, the symbol is placed after the amount, as in 20,50€. Exceptionally, the symbol for the Cape Verdean escudo (like the Portuguese escudo, to which it was formerly pegged) is placed in the decimal separator position, as in 2Dollar sign with two vertical lines50.[1]

Design

Formal dimensions of the euro sign
The euro sign as implemented in a selection of typefaces

Older currency symbols have evolved slowly, often from previous currencies. The modern dollar and peso symbols originated from the mark employed to denote the Spanish dollar,[2] whereas the pound and lira symbols evolved from the letter L (written until the seventeenth century in blackletter type as ) standing for libra, a Roman pound of silver.[3]

Newly invented currencies and currencies adopting new symbols have symbolism meaningful to their adopter. For example, the euro sign € is based on ϵ, an archaic form of the Greek epsilon, to represent Europe;[4] the Indian rupee sign ₹ is a blend of the Latin letter 'R' with the Devanagari letter र (ra);[5] and the Russian Ruble sign ₽ is based on Р (the Cyrillic capital letter 'er').[6]

There are other considerations, such as how the symbol is rendered on computers and typesetting. For a new symbol to be used, its glyphs needs to be added to computer fonts and keyboard mappings already in widespread use, and keyboard layouts need to be altered or shortcuts added to type the new symbol. For example, the European Commission was criticized for not considering how the euro sign would need to be customized to work in different fonts.[7] The original design was also exceptionally wide. These two factors have led to most type foundries designing customized versions that match the 'look and feel' of the font to which it is to be added, often with reduced width.

List of currency symbols currently in use

More information Symbol, Name ...

Rupee symbols by language

More information Language, Sign in Unicode ...

List of historical currency symbols

Some of these symbols may not display correctly.

More information Symbol, Uses ...

See also

References

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    "Moedas" (in Portuguese). Banco de Cabo Verde. Archived from the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2011. A mais recente emissão de moedas do BCV é a moeda comemorativa de 200$00 emitida em 2005 [BCV's most recent coin issue is the 200$00 commemorative coin issued in 2005]
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    Kinnaird, Lawrence (July 1976). "The Western Fringe of Revolution". The Western Historical Quarterly. 7 (3): 259. doi:10.2307/967081. JSTOR 967081.
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    "The Origins of £sd". The Royal Mint Museum. Archived from the original on 8 March 2020.
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    "European Commission – Economic and Financial Affairs – How to use the euro name and symbol". Ec.europa.eu. Archived from the original on 29 May 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
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    "Currency Geeks Rejoice, Russia Has A New Symbol For The Rouble". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2021-11-01. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
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    Westcott, K. (2009) India seeks rupee status symbol Archived 2017-06-21 at the Wayback Machine, BBC 10 March 2009, accessed 1 September 2009
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    Forexforums.com. "Currency symbol finder Archived 2011-02-21 at the Wayback Machine." Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
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    "KGS gets own currency symbol". Bishkek - 24.kg news agency. 10 February 2017.
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    The Reserve Bank of Vanuatu. "Current Banknotes and Coins in Circulation Archived 2018-08-02 at the Wayback Machine." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
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    Everson, Michael (2017-10-22). "N4787R2: Proposal to encode the Wancho script" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-06-14. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
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    Evensen, Nina Marie; Anderson, Deborah (2012-07-24). "L2/12-242: Proposal for one historic currency character, MARK SIGN" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-07-06. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
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    "Bengali Code Chart, Range: 0980–09FF" (PDF). The Unicode Standard. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-07-21. Retrieved 2017-07-15.
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    Pandey, Anshuman (2007-05-21). "L2/07-192: Proposal to Encode the Ganda Currency Mark for Bengali in the BMP of the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-06-14. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
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    Everson, Michael (2015-12-19). "L2/15-338: Proposal to encode four N'Ko characters in the BMP of the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
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    Pandey, Anshuman (2015-11-05). "L2/15-121R2: Proposal to Encode Indic Siyaq Numbers" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-07-13. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
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