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The cent is a
monetary Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are ...
unit of many national currencies that equals of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word 'cent' derives from the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
word meaning hundred. The cent sign is commonly a simple minuscule (lower case) letter . In North America, the c is crossed by a diagonal
stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...
or a vertical line (depending on
typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...
), yielding the character . The United States one cent coin is generally known by the nickname " penny", alluding to the British coin and unit of that name. Australia ended production of their 1¢ coin in 1992, as did Canada in 2012. Some
Eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU pol ...
countries ended production of the
1 euro cent coin The 1 euro cent coin (€0.01) has a value of one hundredth of a euro and is composed of copper-covered steel. It is the lowest-value coin in the Eurozone, the next highest are the 2 and 5 euro cent coins. The coins of every Euro country ...
, most recently Italy in 2018.


Symbol

The cent may be represented by the cent sign, written in various ways according to the national convention and
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a " sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mo ...
choice. Most commonly seen forms are a
minuscule letter Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
''c'' crossed by a diagonal
stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...
or a vertical line or by a simple ''c'', depending on the currency (''see
below Below may refer to: *Earth * Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname *Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general *Fred Below ...
''). Cent amounts from 1 to 99 can be represented as one or two digits followed by the appropriate abbreviation (2¢, 5c, 75¢, 99c), or as a subdivision of the base unit ($0.75, €0.99) In some countries, longer abbreviations like "ct." are used. Languages that use other alphabets have their own abbreviations and conventions. The use of the cent symbol has largely fallen into disuse since the mid-20th century as inflation has resulted in very few things being priced in cents in any currency. It was included on US typewriter keyboards, but has not been adopted on computers.


North American cent sign

The cent sign appeared as the shift of the 6 key on American manual typewriters, but that position has been taken over by the freestanding circumflex on computer keyboards. The character (offset 162) can still be created in most common code pages, including
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
and
Windows-1252 Windows-1252 or CP-1252 ( code page 1252) is a single-byte character encoding of the Latin alphabet, used by default in the legacy components of Microsoft Windows for English and many European languages including Spanish, French, and German. ...
: * On DOS- or
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...
-based computers with a numeric keypad, can be held while typing or on the keypad. See for techniques involving the hexadecimal code point that can be used when there is no numeric keypad, as on many laptops. For the US International keyboard can be typed. * On
Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
systems, can be held and on the number row pressed. * On
Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...
/
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
systems with a compose key, and are typical sequences.


Orthography

When written in English and Mexican Spanish, the cent sign (¢ or c) follows the amount (with no space between)for example, 2¢ and $0.02, or 2c and €0.02. Conventions in other languages may vary.


Usage


Minor currency units called ''cent'' or similar names

Examples of currencies around the world featuring centesimal () units called ''cent'', or related words from the same root such as '' céntimo'', '' centésimo'', '' centavo'' or ''sen'', are: * Argentine peso (as ''centavo'') * Aruban florin, however all circulating coins are in multiples of 5 cents. *
Australian dollar The Australian dollar ( sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Is ...
, however all circulating coins are in multiples of 5 cents. *
Barbadian dollar The dollar has been the currency of Barbados since 1935. Globally its currency has the ISO 4217 code ''BBD'', however, unofficially in Barbados the International vehicle registration code code BDS is also commonly used, a currency code that is o ...
*
Bahamian dollar The dollar ( sign: $; code: BSD) has been the currency of The Bahamas since 1966. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign ''$'', or alternatively B$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 ce ...
*
Belize dollar The Belize dollar is the official currency in Belize (currency code ''BZD''). It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign ''$'', or alternatively ''BZ$'' to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cen ...
* Bermudian dollar *
Bolivian boliviano The boliviano (; sign: BsBanco Central de Bolivia. "Galeria de monedas y billetes''." Accessed 26 February 2011.Banco Central de BoliviaOfficial websiteAccessed 26 February 2011. ISO 4217 code: BOB) is the currency of Bolivia. It is divided in ...
(as ''centavo''), however all circulating coins are in multiples of 10 centavos *
Brazilian real The Brazilian real ( pl. '; sign: R$; code: BRL) is the official currency of Brazil. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. The Central Bank of Brazil is the central bank and the issuing authority. The real replaced the cruzeiro real in 1994 ...
(as ''centavo'') * Brunei dollar (as ''sen'') * Canadian dollar *
Cayman Islands dollar The Cayman Islands Dollar (currency code ''KYD'') is the currency of the Cayman Islands. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign ''$'', or alternatively ''CI$'' to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is subdivided into 1 ...
* Chilean peso (as ''centavo''). Centavos officially exist and are considered in financial transactions; however, there are no current centavo-denominated coins. * Colombian peso (as ''centavo'') * Cook Islands dollar (''cent'', although some 50 cent coins are marked "50 ''tene''") * Cuban peso (as ''centavo'') *
East Caribbean dollar The Eastern Caribbean dollar ( symbol: EC$; code: XCD) is the currency of all seven full members and one associate member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The successor to the British West Indies dollar, it has existed si ...
, however all circulating coins are in multiples of 5 cents. *
Eritrean nakfa The nakfa ( ISO 4217 code: ''ERN''; ''naḳfa'', or or نقفة ''nākfā'') is the currency of Eritrea and was introduced on 15 November 1998 to replace the Ethiopian birr at par. The currency takes its name from the Eritrean town of Nakfa, s ...
* Estonian kroon (as ''sent'') *
Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
 – the coins bear the text "Euro cent". Greek coins have ΛΕΠΤΟ (" lepto") on the obverse of the one-cent coin and ΛΕΠΤΑ ("lepta") on the obverse of the others. The actual
usage The usage of a language is the ways in which its written and spoken variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers", as opposed to idealized models of how a languag ...
varies depending on the language. *
Fijian dollar The Fijian dollar (currency sign: FJ$, $; currency code: FJD) has been the currency of Fiji since 1969 and was also the currency between 1867 and 1873. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively FJ$ to distinguish i ...
* Guyanese dollar *
Hong Kong dollar The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong ...
, however all circulating coins are in multiples of 10 cents. *
Indonesian rupiah The rupiah ( symbol: Rp; currency code: IDR) is the official currency of Indonesia. It is issued and controlled by Bank Indonesia. The name " rupiah" is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, (). Sometimes, Indonesians also informally us ...
(as ''sen'') * Jamaican dollar, however there are no circulating coins with a value below one dollar. * Kenyan shilling * Lesotho loti (as ''sente'') *
Liberian dollar The dollar (currency code ''LRD'') has been the currency of Liberia since 1943. It was also the country's currency between 1847 and 1907. It is normally abbreviated with the sign $, or alternatively L$ or LD$ to distinguish it from other dollar- ...
* Lithuanian litas (as ''centas'') * Macanese pataca (as ''avo''), however all circulating coins are in multiples of 10 avos. *
Malaysian ringgit The Malaysian ringgit (; plural: ringgit; symbol: RM; currency code: MYR; Malay name: ''Ringgit Malaysia''; formerly the Malaysian dollar) is the currency of Malaysia. It is divided into 100 ''sen'' (formerly ''cents''). The ringgit is issu ...
(as ''sen''), however all circulating coins are in multiples of 5 sen. * Mauritian rupee * Mexican peso (as ''centavo'') * Moroccan dirham (as ''santim'') * Namibian dollar *
Netherlands Antillean gulden The Netherlands Antillean guilder ( nl, gulden) is the currency of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, which until 2010 formed the Netherlands Antilles along with Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius. It is subdivided into 100 ''cents'' (Dutch plural form: ...
* New Zealand dollar, however all circulating coins are in multiples of 10 cents. * Panamanian balboa (as ''centésimo'') * Peruvian sol (as ''céntimo'') *
Philippine peso The Philippine peso, also referred to by its Tagalog name ''piso'' ( Philippine English: , , plural pesos; tl, piso ; sign: ₱; code: PHP), is the official currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 ''sentimo'', also called ...
(as ''sentimo'' or ''centavo'') * Seychellois rupee * Sierra Leonean leone *
Singapore dollar The Singapore dollar (currency sign, sign: S$; ISO 4217, code: SGD) is the official currency of the Republic of Singapore. It is divided into 100 cent (currency), cents. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or S$ to distinguish ...
, however all circulating coins are in multiples of 5 cents. * South African rand, however all circulating coins are in multiples of 10 cents. * Sri Lankan rupee * Surinamese dollar *
Swazi lilangeni The lilangeni (plural: emalangeni, ISO 4217 code: ''SZL'') is the currency of Eswatini and is subdivided into 100 cents. It is issued by the Central Bank of Eswatini (in swazi ''Umntsholi Wemaswati'') and is authorised by the king and his family. ...
*
New Taiwan dollar The New Taiwan dollar (code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dol ...
, however all circulating coins are in multiples of 50 cents. * Tanzanian shilling *
Tongan paʻanga The paanga is the currency of Tonga. It is controlled by the National Reserve Bank of Tonga (''Pangikē Pule Fakafonua o Tonga'') in Nukualofa. The paanga is not convertible and is pegged to a basket of currencies comprising the Australian, Ne ...
(as ''seniti'') * Trinidad and Tobago dollar *
United States dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...
* Uruguayan peso (as ''centésimo'') * Zimbabwean dollar


Minor currency units with other names

Examples of currencies featuring centesimal () units not called ''cent''


Obsolete centesimal currency units

Examples of currencies which formerly featured centesimal () units but now have no fractional denomination in circulation: Examples of currencies which use the cent symbol for other purposes: *
Costa Rican colón The colón (plural: ''colones''; sign: ₡; code: CRC) is the currency of Costa Rica. It was named after Christopher Columbus, known as ''Cristóbal Colón'' in Spanish. A colón is divided into one hundred céntimos. Symbol The symbol fo ...
 – The common symbol '¢' is frequently used locally to represent '₡', the proper colón designation * Ghanaian cedi – The common symbol '¢' is sometimes used to represent '₵', the proper cedi designation


See also

* Cent (music)


Notes

{{Authority control Denominations (currency) Currency symbols