Currency symbol

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A currency symbol is a graphic symbol used as a shorthand for a currency's name, especially in reference to amounts of money.

Although many former currency symbols were rendered obsolete by the adoption of the euro, having a new and unique currency symbol – implementation of which requires the adoption of new Unicode and type formats – has now become a status symbol for international currencies. The European Commission considers the global recognition of the euro sign € part of its success. In 2009, India launched a public competition to replace the ₨ ligature it shared with neighboring countries.[1] It finalized its new currency symbol, () on 15 July 2010. It is a blend of the Latin letter 'R' with the Devanagari letter '' (ra).

Usage

When writing currency amounts the location of the symbol varies by currency. Many currencies in the English-speaking world and Latin America, place it before the amount (e.g., R$50,00). The Cape Verdean escudo places its symbol in the decimal position (i.e., 20$00).[2] The usage of many European countries, such as France, Germany, Scandinavian countries, is to place the symbal after the amount 20,50 € or 20,50€.

The decimal separator also follows local countries' standards. For instance, the United Kingdom often uses an interpunct as the decimal point on price stickers (e.g., £5·52), although not in print. Commas (e.g. €5,00) or decimal points (e.g. $50.00) are common separators used in other countries. See decimal separator for information on international standards.

Design

Official dimensions of the euro sign
Dimensions of the symbol in a selection of type faces

Older currency symbols have evolved slowly, often from previous currencies. The dollar and peso symbols originated from the mark employed to denote the Spanish real de a ocho, whereas the pound and lira symbols evolved from an L standing for libra, a Roman pound of silver. Newly invented currencies and currencies adopting new symbols have symbolism closer to their adopter. The added center bar in the real sign is meant to symbolize stability.[3] The new Indian rupee symbol, , is a stylized combination of Latin and Devanagari letters.

There are also other considerations, such as the perception of the business community[citation needed] and how the symbol is rendered on computers. For a new symbol to be used, software to render it needs to be promulgated and keyboards need to be altered or shortcuts added to type the icon. The EU was criticized for not considering how the euro symbol would need to be customized to work in different fonts.[1] The original design was also exceptionally wide. These two factors have led to most typefaces employing customized, font-specific versions, usually with reduced width.

List of presently-circulating currency symbols

Symbol Uses Notes
¤ Generic currency sign Used when the correct symbol is not available
؋ Afghan afghani
Ar Malagasy ariary[4]
฿ Thai baht
B/. Panamanian balboa
Br Ethiopian birr

Belarusian ruble
Bs. Venezuelan bolívar

Bolivian boliviano
Bolívar sometimes Bs.F.
Bs.F. Venezuelan bolívar variant Usually Bs.
GH₵ Ghana cedi
¢ cent, centavo, &c. A centesimal subdivision of currencies such as the US dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Mexican peso. (See article.)

See also c
c cent &c. variant Preferred by currencies such as the Australian, New Zealand, South African cents; the West African CFA centime; and the divisions of the euro.

See also ¢
Ch. Bhutanese chhertum A centesimal division of the ngultrum.
Costa Rican colón, symbol was also used for the Salvadoran colón. The Salvadoran colón was discontinued in 2001 and it was replaced by the US dollar.
D Gambian dalasi
ден Macedonian denar Latin form: DEN
دج Algerian dinar Latin form: DA
.د.ب Bahraini dinar Latin form: BD
د.ع Iraqi dinar
JD Jordanian dinar
د.ك Kuwaiti dinar Latin form: K.D.
ل.د Libyan dinar Latin form: LD
дин Serbian dinar Latin form: din.
د.ت Tunisian dinar Latin form: DT
د.م. Moroccan dirham Latin forms: DH or Dhs
د.إ United Arab Emirates dirham Latin forms: DH or Dhs
Db São Tomé and Príncipe dobra
$ Australian (A$), Bahamian (B$), Barbadian (Bds$), Belizean (BZ$), Bermudian (BD$), Brunei (B$), Canadian (Can$), Cayman Islands (CI$), East Caribbean (EC$), Fiji (FJ$), Guyanese (G$),[5] Hong Kong (HK$/元/圓), Jamaican (J$), Kiribati, Liberian, Linden Dollar (Second Life virtual world) (L$ or LD$), Namibian (N$), New Zealand (NZ$), Singaporean (S$), Solomon Islands (SI$), Surinamese (SRD), Taiwanese (NT$/元/圓), Trinidad and Tobago (TT$), Tuvaluan, United States (US$), and Zimbabwean (Z$) dollars

Argentine, Chilean (CLP$), Colombian (COL$), Cuban ($MN), Cuban convertible (CUC$), Dominican (RD$), Mexican (Mex$), and Uruguayan ($U) pesos

Nicaraguan córdoba (C$)

Brazilian real (R$)

Tongan paʻanga
May appear with either one or two bars (Double-barred dollar sign.svg), both of which currently share the same Unicode space.

Kiribati and Tuvalu's dollars are pegged 1:1 with the Australian dollar.

Brunei's dollar is pegged 1:1 with the Singaporean dollar.

See also MOP$ and WS$
Unicode: See $ for variants.
Vietnamese đồng U+20AB VIETNAMESE DONG SIGN
Armenian dram sign.svg Armenian dram U+058F ֏ ARMENIAN DRAM SIGN
Esc Cape Verdean escudo Also the double-barred dollar sign (cifrão): Double-barred dollar sign.svg
Euro In addition to the members of the eurozone, the Vatican, San Marino, and Monaco have been granted issuing rights for coinage but not banknotes.
ƒ Aruban florin (Afl.)[6]

Netherlands Antillean guilder (NAƒ)
Ft Hungarian forint
FBu Burundian franc
FCFA Central African CFA franc Also CFA[7]

Pegged 1:1 with West African CFA franc
Fr Comorian (CF), Congolese (CF, FC), Djiboutian (Fdj/DF), Guinean (FG/GFr) and Swiss (SFr) francs Also F. The character ₣, representing an F with a double bar, proposed as a symbol for the French Franc by Édouard Balladur in 1988 was never adopted, it is represented by a ligature Fr in some fonts.
FRw Rwandan franc[8] Possibly also RF[9] and RFr[10]
CFA West African CFA franc Pegged 1:1 with Central African CFA franc
G Haitian gourde
gr Polish grosz A centesimal division of the złoty
Paraguayan guaraní Or Parag-guarani-G.svg
h Czech haléř A centesimal division of the koruna
Ukrainian hryvnia
Lao kip Or ₭N
Czech koruna
kr Danish (Dkr) and Norwegian krones

Swedish krona

Faroese and Icelandic (Íkr) króna
Faroese króna pegged 1:1 with Danish krone.
kn Croatian kuna
MK Malawian kwacha
ZK Zambian kwacha
Kz Angolan kwanza
K Myanma kyat

Papua New Guinean kina
ლ Georgian lari Unicode: U+20BE GEORGIAN LARI SIGN (may display incorrectly)
L Albanian lek

Honduran lempira
Also used as the currency symbol for the Lesotho one-loti and the Swazi one-lilangeni note

Also uncommonly used for the pound sign £
Le Sierra Leonean leone
E Swazi lilangeni Symbol based on the plural form "emalangeni".

The one-lilageni note employs the currency symbol
L
lp Croatian lipa A centesimal division of the kuna.
Turkish lira symbol black.svg Turkish lira Unicode: U+20BA TURKISH LIRA SIGN
M Lesotho loti Symbol based on plural form "maloti".

The one-loti note employs the currency symbol
L
Azeri manat symbol.svg Azerbaijani manat Also m. and man. Unicode: U+20BC MANAT SIGN (may display incorrectly)
KM Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark Cyrillic form: КМ
MT Mozambican metical[11] Also MTn
Mill, mil, &.c An uncommon millesimal subdivision of US dollars and other currencies. (See article.)
Nfk Eritrean nakfa Also Nfa[7]
Nigerian naira
Nu. Bhutanese ngultrum
UM Mauritanian ouguiya[12]
MOP$ Macanese pataca Alsoand
Philippine peso Also P, PhP, and P
Pt. Egyptian piastre A centesimal division of the Egyptian pound.
£ British, Falkland Islands (FK£), Gibraltar, Manx (M£), St. Helena Alsoand L, all pegged 1:1 to GBP
ج.م. Egyptian pound Latin: L.E. Rarely £E or
LL Lebanese pound
LS Syrian pound
P Botswana pula
Q Guatemalan quetzal
q Albanian qindarkë A centesimal division of the lek.
R South African rand Also sometimes Russian &c. rubles
R$ Brazilian real The $ is sometimes informally written with a double bar like a double-barred dollar sign: Double-barred dollar sign.svg
Rialsymbol.svg Iranian rial Unicode: U+FDFC RIAL SIGN
ر.ع. Omani rial
ر.ق Qatari riyal Latin: QR
ر.س Saudi riyal Latin: SR. Also: ریال
Cambodian riel
RM Malaysian ringgit
p British &c. pennies The penny is now a centesimal division of the pound.
Pridnestrovie ruble sign.svg Pridnestrovie ruble
Ruble sign.svg Russian ruble Unicode: U+20BD RUBLE SIGN
Rf. Maldivian rufiyaa Also MRf., MVR and
Indian rupee Previously ₨ or Re (before July 15, 2010). Unicode: U+20B9 INDIAN RUPEE SIGN
Mauritian,[13] Nepalese[14] (N₨/रू.), Pakistani and Sri Lankan (SLRs/රු) rupees
SRe Seychellois rupee[15] Also SR
Rp Indonesian rupiah
Israeli new shekel
Ksh Kenyan shilling Also KSh
Sh.So. Somali shilling[16]
USh Ugandan shilling
S/. Peruvian nuevo sol
SDR Special drawing rights
лв Bulgarian lev
сом Kyrgyzstani som
Bangladeshi Taka Also Tk
WS$ Samoan tālā Symbol based on previous name "West Samoan tala".

Also
T and ST.

See also $
Kazakhstani tenge symbol.svg Kazakhstani tenge U+20B8 KAZAKHSTANI TENGE SIGN (may display incorrectly)
Mongolian tögrög
VT Vanuatu vatu[17]
North Korean won

South Korean won
¥ Japanese yen (円/圓)

Chinese Renminbi yuan (元/圆)
Used with one and two crossbars.
円 (en, lit. "circle") is frequently used in Japan colloquially.
元 is also used in reference to the Macanese pataca and Hong Kong and Taiwanese dollars.
Unicode: U+00A5 ¥ YEN SIGN, U+FFE5 FULLWIDTH YEN SIGN
Polish złoty

Rupee symbols

Rupee Sign in other languages
Language Sign in Unicode
Sinhala U+0DD4 රු SINHALA RUPEE SIGN (HTML &#3540;)
Gujarati U+0AF1 GUJARATI RUPEE SIGN (HTML &#2801;)
Kannada U+0CB0 KANNADA RUPEE SIGN (HTML &#3248;)
Tamil U+0BF9 TAMIL RUPEE SIGN (HTML &#3065;)
North Indic U+A838 NORTH INDIC RUPEE MARK (HTML &#43064;)

List of historic currency symbols

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Westcott, K. (2009) India seeks rupee status symbol, BBC 10 March 2009, accessed 1 September 2009
  2. (Portuguese) Banco de Cabo Verde. "Moedas." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. Banky Foiben'i Madagasikara. Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
  5. Bank of Guyana. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  6. Centrale Bank van Aruba. About Us – A Brief History of the Bank." Accessed 23 Feb 2011.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Forexforums.com. "Currency symbol finder." Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
  8. National Bank of Rwanda. "Legal tender." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  9. University of British Columbia: Saunders School of Business. "Currencies of the World." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  10. Lonely Planet. "Rwanda." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  11. Banco de Moçambique. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  12. Banque Centrale de Mauritanie. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  13. Bank of Mauritius. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  14. Nepal Rastra Bank. Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
  15. Central Bank of Seychelles. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
  16. Central Bank of Somalia. Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
  17. The Reserve Bank of Vanuatu. "Current Banknotes and Coins in Circulation." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.