Talk:ISO 4217

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There is also a list at http://www.xe.net/iso4217.htm

[edit] Merge with/link to Currency_codes

It's in the link above Currency_codes.Maybe just move that here??

The page at http://www.xe.net/iso4217.htm doesn't really list ISO 4217 codes. As it says at the top of the page, the codes it lists are the ones that are used in practice, which are not always the ISO 4217 codes. --Zundark, 2001 Dec 31

Shouldn't Currency_codes and ISO 4217 be merged into one page? -- poslfit, 2001-12-31

Most of the stuff currently at Currency codes is about ISO 4217, so it should be moved to ISO 4217. But we might still want a separate article about currency codes, if there are others currency codes that should be mentioned. --Zundark, 2001 Dec 31

[edit] XAU Gold

"XAU Gold". Gold what? Pink Elephants? Fixing. --Admbws 00:01, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

ISO 4217:1981 says just "Gold". I see that someone has added to the article that the unit is troy ounces, but does anyone have a reliable reference for that? It could, for instance, be kilograms or grams---or unspecified by ISO 4217. --Ljosa 09:38, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Before or after?

In the course of a discussion somewhere else, I got to wondering whether the standard defines how these "names" should be used: before the value (like a symbol: "£10" becomes "GBP 10") or after it (like a word: "10 pounds" becomes "10 GBP"). I've seen both in use, but I wondered if one or the other was officially "correct". Anybody know? - IMSoP 17:42, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

It all depends on language, not so much on currency. Take these representations of EUR 12.34 in the languages of various Euroland countries:

Ireland: €12.34
France and Spain: 12,34€ (also 12€34 in France)
Germany and Italy: €12,34

However, if the currency is a word (euro), rather than a symbol (€) or ISO code (EUR), then the currency follows rather than precedes the amount. Nfh 11:33, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

It is my personal opinion that ISO 4217 codes should come after the amount, and be separated by a (non-breaking) space. The reason for my opinion is that I see the codes as unit symbols, and other unit symbols always come after the amount. I shudder whenever somebody puts a currency code before the amount, because, to me, it's like stating that something is "m 3" in length (instead of "3 m"). Of course, every other English-speaking person disagrees with me :) --64.229.112.76 04:31, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Standards

There is a Wikipedia:Requested move to move the Dong (currency) to Vietnamese dong. I notice that most, but not all pages follow the pattern of "country currency". I think all that can, should be moved into this format. There are a number where this will not be approprite EG the Euro. There are also some where "common (English) usage" may dictate another page name eg "Pound Sterling". But I think for the majority of currencies they should be in the format "country currency name" in line with ISO 4217. Also I think that the currency should start with an upper case letter eg "United States Dollar" instead of "United States dollar". What do others think? Philip Baird Shearer 09:58, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I agree Zntrip 02:19, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

I agree with the Dong issue, but disagree with the currency capitalization. —

ナイトスタリオン _ㇳ–ㇰ — 09:45, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

The currency list on this page is actually quite a mess as there are lots of mistakes on the currency names, although the currency codes do appear to be correct.

Where a currency name is not unique (e.g. Dollar, Pound, Franc, Rupee, Peso etc), ISO4217 uses the relevant country name or adjective, or another uniquely identifying word, as part of the currency name. Unique currency names do not include a country name or adjective in the official ISO currency names. However, many currency code lists, such as London FX, do include country names or adjectives for all currencies, even though this causes many of the currency names to differ from ISO4217. For the non-unique currency names, ISO tends to favour the name, rather than the adjective, of a country, so perhaps we should following this same tendency here for adding countries to the unique currency names.

I have identified the following non-unique currency names on the page here as differing from the official exact ISO4217 currency names. We should correct these mistakes. As a start, I am correcting GBP (Pound Sterling) immediately.

AED = UAE Dirham, not United Arab Emirates dirham
ANG = Netherlands Antillian Guilder, not Netherlands Antilles Gulden
AZM = Azerbaijanian Manat, not Azerbaijani manat
BAM = Bosnia and Herzegovina Convertible Marks, not Bosnia-Herzegovina convertible mark
BBD = Barbados Dollar, not Barbadian dollar
BMD = Bermudian Dollar, not Bermuda dollar
BYR = Belarussian Ruble, not Belarusian ruble
CDF = Franc Congolais, not Congolese franc
CVE = Cape Verde Escudo, not Cape Verdean escudo
EUR = euro, not European Union euro
FJD = Fiji Dollar, not Fijian dollar
GBP = Pound Sterling, not Great British Pound
GYD = Guyana Dollar, not Guyanese dollar
ISK = Iceland Krona, not Icelandic króna
KMF = Comoro Franc, not Comorian franc
KRW = Korean Won, not South Korean won
LKR = Sri Lanka Rupee, not Sri Lankan rupee
LVL = Latvian Lats, not Latvian lat
NAD = Namibia Dollar, not Namibian dollar
OMR = Rial Omani, not Omani rial
PKR = Pakistan Rupee, not Pakistani rupee
RWF = Rwanda Franc, not Rwandan franc
SAR = Saudi Riyal, not Saudi Arabian riyal
SHP = St Helena Pound, not Saint Helenian pound
SRD = Surinam Dollar, not Suriname dollar
TMM = Turkmenistan Manat, not Turkmen manat
TRY = Turkish Lira, not New Turkish lira
UGX = Uganda Shilling, not Ugandan shilling
USD = US Dollar, not United States dollar
UYU = Peso Uruguayo, not Uruguayan peso
UZS = (Uzbekistan) Sum, not (Uzbekistani) som
XDR = SDR (Special Drawing Rights), not Special Drawing Rights (IMF)
ZWD = Zimbabwe Dollar, not Zimbabwean dollar

Furthermore, ISO4217 capitalises the first letter of each currency name (except for the euro). We should do likewise here for all currency names in order to comform as closely as possible to ISO4217.

In summary, I suggest that we use the exact ISO4217 currency name. If the currency name is unique, we should insert the relevant country name or adjective, with a preference for the country name. For example, we should use the exact ISO name "Pound Sterling" because "pound" is not unique, but we should use enriched name "Latvian Lats" (inserting "Latvian") because "Lats" is unique.

The only place you can get the full ISO4217 official currency list is to buy it from ISO. You can also find it for free in the SWIFT book, but everything is capitalised.

Nfh 19:52, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

I can certainly live with Guatemalan quetzal instead of Quetzal (currency); and for the sake of consistency I can accept moving Ariary to Malagasy ariary. But even as a fan of ISO 4217, I have to point out that it does follow some very strange decisions: Why peso uruguayo? (Are the other pesos' countries translated?) Why "Latvian" (adjective) but "Namibia" (noun)? Why "Surinam" if the country's own preferred spelling is "Suriname"? And the capitalization issue -- while probably quite valid in the context of presenting a standardized list of names -- seems to fly in the face of "use common names" and the guidelines of most style manuals: Chicago, Associated Press, World Bank. Times, ITU, etc. all used lower-case dollars, etc. –Hajor 20:23, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

I proposed more sensible moves at Requested moves and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Numismatics.

ナイトスタリオン ✉ 21:06, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

I think that some of the choice of names comes down to the country's own preference. This is definitely true of ISO country names. For example, the following are all official ISO English language "short names" of countries: Russian Federation, Libyan Arab Jamahiria, Iran (Islamic Republic of). These are the choices of the countries themselves, and no doubt currency names are affected by the same decisions. The ISO4217 name of currency LVL, being a unique name is simply "Lats". I added "Latvian" to be consistent with the existing list, as it was the name of the currency that was wrong, not the country. On the subject of Suriname, ISO4217 has the country name as "Suriname", but the currency name as "Surinam Guilder" - I agree that is odd. Nfh 21:35, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Note, however, that Wikipedia policy is not to use the official name, but rather the most common name. (Which I'm not always happy about - East-Timor should be Timor-Leste - but in this case, I agree.) Please go through my list of suggested moves and tell me which ones you can't agree with, and then we can discuss those. Deal?

ナイトスタリオン ✉ 22:41, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

And regarding capitalization: I'm pretty sure there's a consensus that dollar, euro, pound and the likes should not be capitalized.

ナイトスタリオン ✉ 22:43, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

This article is supposed to be specifically about ISO4217, not simply about currency codes in general. We should therefore use the ISO names (including ISO's capitalisation), not the most common names. Nfh 20:09, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

... good point, actually. Alright, I support changing the listed names in this article to the ISO-4217 ones, but I would still advocate using the ones listed by me at Requested moves for the article names. Agreed?

ナイトスタリオン ✉ 09:05, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Yes, agreed. I would only add that we should use the capitalisation used by ISO4217 for the currency names. Nfh 20:28, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't think you'll find consensus on that... And I don't think it should be that way. Going through Google News searching for "canadian dollar", I find many more "Canadian dollar"s on the first ten pages than "Canadian Dollar"s. If you really insist, though, I'm not opposed to voting on it at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Numismatics.

ナイトスタリオン ✉ 21:52, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and just go ahead with updating the list in this article to the official ISO names, you've got my support on that.

ナイトスタリオン ✉ 21:53, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Why GBP and not UKP?

I understand that GBP and not UKP is the correct abbreviation for pounds sterling... but why is that the case, given that there's no independent country called "Great Britain"? I tried Googling to see if I could get an answer to this, but all I got were a heap of results pointing me to ISO 4217. In other words, they stated the position, but didn't explain it. The only explanations I saw that seemed to make sense were:

a) that it was to avoid confusion with Ukrainian currency - but as that turns out to be UAH, there goes that idea; b) because Northern Ireland banks issue their own notes - but so do those in Scotland.

So... can anyone tell me why UKP was passed over in favour of GBP back in the 1970s? Loganberry (Talk) 02:34, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

ISO 4217 codes are, as you can read in the article, based on ISO 3166 codes. ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the United Kingdom is GB. · Naive cynic · 09:05, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

And if you're still wondering now, the reason why the ISO code for the UKoGBaNI is "GBR" and "GB" and not "UKD"/"UKG" and "UK" is that the "United Kingdom" part is considered to be just like the "Federal Republic" part in "Federal Republic of Austria". And yes, I'm aware of the fact that by all rights, the USoA codes should be "AMR" and "AM", then, and not "USA" and "US", since "United States" is basically equal to "United Kingdom"... Anyway, hope I could help.

ナイトスタリオン ✉ 10:32, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] links to Wikipedia articles

There are a lot of currency articles around now that are not linked here. Ingrid 05:29, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] update to match ISO 4217

Since this page is about the ISO, the currency names (not just the codes) should match the ISO list. I've started the update (and gotten up to Euro). I think this change makes sense regardless, since the whole point of the page is to show ISO 4217 (and I think the currency names count as part of the standard). However, this is also an important change because the numismatics project has decided to use ISO names for currency pages (see vote). Ingrid 00:54, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Missing

So far I notice three currencies are missing:

They are not on the ISO official list either. Why? --Kvasir 03:35, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Because they're not currencies in their own right. Just like Scotland and Northern Ireland, they have their own notes and coins, but they're still Sterling. I'm not sure why the Gibraltar Pound is listed by ISO as a currency in its own right, because it has a similar status to the above. The only place I've seen these, Scottish and Northern Irish listed as currencies in their own right is in the wholesale banknote markets, where non-BoE notes are worth less than BoE notes. NFH 09:49, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

In that case, neither are the SHP and the FKK but they are on the ISO list. They are 1:1 with the GBP just like the GIP. --Kvasir 10:09, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

That's a good question. There are two ways I can think of that GI, FK & SH differ from GG, JE, IM, Scotland and Northern Ireland: 1. The latter territories are not listed in ISO4217 (despite many other dependent territories being with the currency of their parent country); 2. The latter territories are in the British Isles, and therefore geographically close to the UK (if that has any relevance). NFH 12:24, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

I was able to find "IMP", "GGP", and "JEP" under List of circulating currencies as "ISO codes". But they are probably not official though. Interestingly, the article on the Faroese króna explicitly say it isn't an independent currency and use the code DKK instead. This corresponds to the table in List of circulating currencies. --Kvasir 12:32, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

"Circulating" implies notes and coins, not necessarily a currency issued by a recognised central bank (e.g. Scottish banknotes, Somaliland etc). If you check http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/popstds/currencycodeslist.html, you will see what I mean about GG, JE and IM. NFH 12:39, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

What I don't get is that the ISO table lists dependent territories who have no independent currency as well. See there is Faroe Islands with its own entry even though it list it as using the Danish krone when there is a Faroese krona as well. GG, IM and JE should at least have entries in there because they are by no means part of the UK. A little inconsistent with the ISO table IMO. --Kvasir 23:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, it's very consistent. The Channel Islands and Man don't have ISO country codes, so they are not listed; the Faroe Islands do, so they are. —Nightstallion (?) 07:01, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

That's kind of the point I was trying to make. However, it doesn't explain why GG, JE and IM don't have their own ISO country codes in the first place, whereas other dependent territories do, which I think it the point that Kvasir is making. NFH 08:06, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

That IS a good explanation, Nightstallion, thankyou. It doesn't really have much to do with currency dependency, afterall. But yeah, NFH, it doesn't explain why there is no country code for GG, IM and JE. --Kvasir 08:12, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

I had been wondering about that for quite some time, too. They do have inofficial ISO codes, though; GGY, JEY and IMN. (Those are reserved codes, on behalf of the International Postal Union, IIRC.) One of you two could send an e-mail to the ISO folks and ask them about this, though... If you do, please let me know of the reply. —Nightstallion (?) 10:38, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

For those who care -- there's been an update to ISO 3166; they've got codes now. Yay! ;) —Nightst a llion (?) ^{Seen this already?} 06:43, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What are funds?

What are fund codes like the "Bolivian Mvdol"? – Zntrip 01:36, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Locations using this currency

I suggest to show in field "Locations using this currency" show all entities where currency recognized as official incl. unrecognized countries:

New Taiwan dollar - Republic of China
Turkish new lira - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Russian ruble - Abkhazia and South Osetia and etc.

[edit] Serbia and Montenegro

Both Serbia and Montenegro have received their own ISO 3166-1 codes. ISO website still has CSD as Serbian dinar ISO 4217 code, but that should change soon, maybe changed to RSD.--Jusjih 15:24, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Not maybe, certainly. It's only a matter of when the code will be changed from CSD to RSD. —Nightst a llion (?) 19:58, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] XXX 999

Where is the XXX 999 (no currency) code used? --Samnikal 11:35, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

In data tables and such. —Nightst a llion (?) 01:34, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

What sort of data tables? Where they have a blank entry they put XXX 999 ?--Samnikal 02:00, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

When they include non-currency information where currency information would be expected. —Nightst a llion (?) 00:42, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

XXX is used for pieces for e.g. when you buy 1000 shares then you buy 1000 with the nominal currency XXX. When you buy bonds the nominal currency is e.g. EUR. To say XXX is used where a currency is expected that is not true. So for me XXX is a currency - it's used as nominal currency. -- Robert Graf 09:41, 06 February 2007 (UTC)

See. Thanks.--Samnikal 04:57, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] E = 0, 2, 3

What is the significance of the column 'E' in the table? Typical values seem to be 0, 2, and 3.

Is it perhaps related to the subunits (e.g. E = 2 means that there are 100 subunits to the unit, E = 3 means 1000 subunits to the unit, and E = 0 means no subunits)? -- pne (talk) 19:53, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

It appears to stand for exponent - the number of digits after the decimal point as you suggested. -- (Shocktm | Talk | contribs.) 00:30, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

I must point out, some currencies have multi level subunit such as renminbi or Jordanian dinar. Therefore, a single exponent number provides an incomplete picture. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 09:23, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

In addition, some countries with nominal subdivisions no longer used due to inflation are listed here as 0, and others are listed as 2. What determines whether it's listed as 0 or 2? Nik42 18:05, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

In addition, some currencies have subdivisions that aren't divisible by 10. So what to list in the "E" column for MGA and MRO? 0.69897? Looks cryptical to me. (Stefan2 10:25, 21 October 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Clean up

Nik42, thank you for cleaning up this article. I believe this article needs more cleaning up. Many currency unit in the table are capitalized. They should be lower case per Wikipedia:WikiProject Numismatics/Style. And for currencies that have gone through so many redenominations, but with the same unit name, such as the Yugoslav dinar, a disambiguating phrase should be included, like "(1994)". (I'm sorry for being the one who talks big and takes no action... But I am so busy lately...)--ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 05:46, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bulgarian lev codes

There are codes indicated for Bulgarian currencies which were obsolate before ISO 4217 was introduced (BGJ and BGK). Are they authentic or just created later - it seems to be soo since the 3rd letters (J and K) alphabetically preceed L (coming from lev) of the code when the ISO standard was introduced. Timur lenk 06:04, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Code breaks table during print

It seems that this line of code is causing the table of active codes to break and terminate at the end of a page when printed:

|+align="bottom"| http://www.jhall.demon.co.uk/currency/

72.177.42.254 13:29, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] USD=2? USD=3!

Just because the USD doesn't have mills in active circulation doesn't mean they are nonexistant. The Coinage Act (1792) states..."That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and milles or thousandths". It is used in taxes and gas prices. If anyone is going to base an argument on the lowest available coinage, keep in mind countries such as Slovakia, which have levels of currency far below the lowest coin (50h is the lowest coin, but Slovakia is listed as 2 decimal places in this chart). samwaltz 00:16, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Airline ticket not actually showing price

The airline ticket in the picture claims that the "price" is shown in EUR. Unfortunately, the price itself is "IT" (individual tariff) and not shown on the ticket, just the surcharges (for example, fuel surcharge YQ) are. 217.11.197.10 (talk) 09:43, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Places using the Euro

There are a good handful of places out with the Eurozone which use the Euro unilaterally including Kosovo and Montenegro. Yet these are not listed. 86.111.162.127 (talk) 03:10, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] E = 0.7

In the list of currencies (section 2) is the column E[1]. The relevant footnote only says "Number of digits after the decimal point."

At least two currencies have '0.7' in this column, which is nonsensical in terms of the wording of the footnote (you can't have 0.7 digits). I'm not entirely certain what is going on here, I just know that what I'm reading makes no sense. Can someone knowledgable examine and rectify this please? Manning (talk) 01:37, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 0.7 digits after the decimal point??

Several currencies have 0.7 digits after the decimal point in their currency. How does that work, unless it's like it converted from base 10 to base 7 with the decimal point. 75.170.42.250 (talk) 23:50, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

The exponent is the number n, such that 10ⁿ is the number of subunits that the currency is divided into. Therefore if the currency is divided into 100 subunits (each worth 0.01) then, as 10² is 100, the exponent is 2. Similarly for currencies divided into 1000, 10³ = 1000 so the exponent is 3. For decimal currencies, this equates to "number of digits after the decimal point.

For non-decimal currencies, the mathematics become a little less simple and requires logarithms

we have the formula:

10ⁿ = a

we can use logarithms to get the formula:

n = log₁₀ a

and if a is 5 (as in the case of those odd currencies) then:

n = log₁₀ 5

n = 0.69897000433601880478626110527551...

which for convenience is rounded to 0.7. While not mathematically precise, plugging that 0.7 into the initial formula produces 5.0118723362727228500155418688495..., which (seeing as a currency can only be divided into an integer number of sub-units) must mean that the number of sub-units is 5

For the Curious, I calculate that the exponent for Galleons to Knuts would be 2.693 and for Ningi to triangic Pu would be 0.9 MrWeeble Talk Brit tv 21:03, 10 June 2008 (UTC)