Currency symbols

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

In formatting, the symbol can use various formattings: before, between or after the numeric amounts: , and , for example; this positioning is determined by national convention.

The symbol is not defined or listed by ISO 4217: that only assigns three-letter codes to currencies (like for Azerbaijani manat) and special cases like gold and silver ( and respectively) that are used as financial instruments.

Usage

When writing currency amounts, the location of the symbol varies by language. Many currencies in English-speaking countries and Latin America (except Haiti) place it before the amount (e.g., R$50,00). The Cape Verdean escudo (like the Portuguese escudo, to which it was formerly pegged) places its symbol in the decimal separator position (e.g. 20$00). Banco de Cabo Verde.
Moedas
." Accessed 25 Feb 2011. In many European countries such as France, the symbol is usually placed after the amount (e.g. 20,50 €).

The decimal separator also follows local countries' standards. For instance, the United Kingdom often uses an interpunct as the decimal point on handwritten price stickers (e.g., £5·52), but a full stop (e.g., £5.52) in print. Commas (e.g. €5,00) or decimal points (e.g. $50.00) are common separators used in other countries.

Design

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, whereas the pound and lira symbols evolved from the letter L (written until the seventeenth century in blackletter type as $\mathfrak$) standing for , a Roman pound of silver.

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

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.Westcott, K. (2009
India seeks rupee status symbol
, BBC 10 March 2009, accessed 1 September 2009 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

Rupee symbols by language

List of historic currency symbols

Some of these symbols may not display correctly.

See also

* List of currencies
* List of circulating currencies
* Currency Symbols (Unicode block)
* International currency symbol

References

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