Currency sign
A currency sign is a graphic symbol used as a shorthand for a currency's name, especially in reference to amounts of money. They typically employ the first letter or character of the currency, sometimes with minor changes such as ligatures or overlaid vertical or horizontal bars. Today, ISO 4217 codes are used instead of currency signs for most official purposes, though currency signs may be in common use in many other contexts. Few currencies in the world have no short-hand symbol at all.
Although many former currency signs were rendered obsolete by the adoption of the euro, having a new and unique currency sign — 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 part of the success of the euro was the global recognition of the euro sign €. 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 "र."
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Usage
When writing currency amounts the location of the sign varies by currency. Many currencies, especially in Latin America and the English-speaking world, place it before the amount (e.g., R$50.00); many others place it after the amount (e.g., 50.00 S₣); and the Cape Verdean escudo, like the former Portuguese escudo and French franc, placed its sign in the decimal position (i.e., 20$00).[2]
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., R$50.00) are common separators used in other countries. See decimal separator for information on international standards.
Design
Older currency signs have evolved slowly, often from previous currencies. The dollar and peso signs originated from the mark employed to denote the Spanish real de a ocho, whereas the pound and lira signs evolved from an L standing for libra, a Roman pound of silver. Newly invented currencies and currencies adopting new signs have symbolism closer to their adopter. The added center bar in the euro 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 and how the sign 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 sign was to be displayed;[1] the original design was also exceptionally wide, which has led to most displays employing altered versions with reduced width.
List of presently-circulating currency signs
| Symbol | Uses | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ¤ | Generic currency sign | Used when the correct sign 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. |
| ₵ | 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 ¢ |
| ct | Lithuanian centas | A centesimal division of the litas |
| Ch. | Bhutanese chhertum | A centesimal division of the ngultrum. |
| ₡ | Costa Rican colón | Also used for the former Salvadoran colón, which was discontinued in 2001 in favor of the US dollar, but remains accepted as legal tender. |
| D | Gambian dalasi | |
| ден | Macedonian denar | Latin form: DEN |
| دج | Algerian dinar | Latin form: DA |
| .د.ب | Bahraini dinar | Latin form: BD |
| ع.د | 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 | |
| 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 (C$), Cayman Islands (CI$), East Caribbean (EC$), Fiji (FJ$), Guyanese (G$),[5] Hong Kong (HK$/元/圆), Jamaican (J$), Kiribati, Liberian (L$ or LD$), Namibian (N$), New Zealand (NZ$), Singaporean (S$), Soloman Islands (SI$), Surinamese (SRD), Taiwanese (NT$/元/圆), 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$) Tongan paʻanga |
May appear with either one or two bars, both of which currently share the same unicode space. Kiribati and Tuvalu's dollars are pegged 1:1 with the Australian dollar. See also MOP$ and WS$ |
| ₫ | Vietnamese đồng | |
| Armenian dram | ||
| Esc | Cape Verdean escudo | Also the double-barred dollar sign (cifrão):  |
| € | European 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 |
| ₣ | Comorian (CF), Congolese (CF), Djiboutian (Fdj/DF), Guinean (FG/G₣) and Swiss (S₣) francs | Also F and Fr. |
| FRw | Rwandan franc[8] | Possibly also RF[9] and R₣[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 |
| h | Czech haléř | A centesimal division of the koruna |
| ₴ | Ukrainian hryvnia | |
| ₭ | Lao kip | Or ₭N |
| к. | Russian kopek | A centesimal division of the ruble. Also коп. |
| Kč | 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 | |
| Ls | Latvian lats | |
| L | Albanian lek Honduran lempira |
Also used as the currency sign 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 | Sign based on the plural form "emalangeni. " The one-lilageni note employs the currency sign L |
| lp | Croatian lipa | A centesimal division of the kuna. |
| TL | Turkish lira | |
| Lt | Lithuanian litas | |
| M | Lesotho loti | Sign based on plural form "maloti. " The one-loti note employs the currency sign L |
| Azerbaijani manat | Also m. and man. | |
| КМ | Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark | Latin form: KM |
| 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 | Also 圓 and 元 |
| ₱ | Philippine peso | Also P, PhP, and P |
| £ | British, Falkland Islands (FK£), Gibraltar, Lebanese (LL), Manx, St. Helena, Sudanese and Syrian (LS) pounds | Also ₤ and L |
| ج.م. | Egyptian pound | Latin: L.E. Rarely £E or E£ |
| P | Botswana pula | |
| Q | Guatemalan quetzal | |
| q | Albanian qindarkë | A centesimal division of the lek. |
| Pt. | Egyptian qirsh | A centesimal division of the Egyptian pound. |
| R | South African rand | Also sometimes Russian &c. rubles |
| R$ | Brazilian real | Also the double-barred dollar sign: |
| ریال | Iranian rial | Script for "rial," a currency name also used by other nations. |
| ر.ع. | Omani rial | |
| ر.ق | Qatari rial | Latin: QR |
| ر.س | Saudi riyal | Latin: SR. Also: ریال |
| ៛ | Cambodian riel | |
| RM | Malaysian ringgit | |
| руб. | Russian ruble | Latin: rub. Also Р., р., and R |
| р. | British &c. pennies Transnistrian ruble |
The penny is now a centesimal division of the pound. |
| Rf. | Maldivian rufiyaa | Also MRf. and .ރ |
| Indian rupee | Unicode: ₹ | |
| ₨ | Mauritian,[13] Nepalese[14] (N₨/रू.), Pakistani and Sri Lankan (SL₨/රු) rupees | |
| SRe | Seychellois rupee[15] | Also SR |
| Rp | Indonesian rupiah | |
| s | Latvian santīms | A centesimal division of the lats. |
| ₪ | 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 | Sign based on previous name "West Samoan tala." Also T and ST. See also $ |
| Kazakhstani tenge | Unicode: ₸ | |
| ₮ | Mongolian tögrög | |
| VT | Vanuatu vatu[17] | |
| ₩ | North Korean and South Korean won | |
| ¥ | Japanese yen (円/圓) Chinese Renminbi yuan (元/圓) |
Used with one and two crossbars. 元 and 圓 are also used in reference to the Macanese pataca and Hong Kong and Taiwanese dollars. |
| zł | Polish złoty |
List of historic currency signs
- ₳ Argentine austral sign
- ₢ Cr$ Brazilian cruzeiro sign
- ₰ pfennig sign of the German Mark (1875-1923) and the German Reichsmark (1923-1948)
- DM East German Deutsche Mark (east) sign (1948-1964)
- DM West German and united German Deutsche Mark (west) sign (1948-2001)
- ₯ Greek drachma sign
- ₠ ECU sign (not widely used, and now historical; replaced by the euro)
- ƒ Dutch gulden sign, currently used in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba
- ₣ franc sign, formerly used in France and other countries
- ₤ lira sign, formerly used in Italy, San Marino and Vatican City, and sometimes in Malta
- Lm Maltese lira sign
- Kčs Czechoslovak koruna sign
- M East German Mark der DDR sign (1968-1990)
- ℳ German Mark sign (1875-1923)
- MDN East German Mark der Deutschen Notenbank sign (1964-1968)
- mk Finnish markka sign
- $ Portuguese escudo sign (cifrão)
- ₧ Spanish peseta sign
- ℛℳ German reichsmark sign (1923-1948)
- Sk Slovak koruna
- ₶ Livre tournois sign, used in medieval France.
See also
References
- ^ a b Westcott, K. (2009) India seeks rupee status symbol, BBC 10 March 2009, accessed 1 September 2009
- ^ Banco de Cabo Verde. "Moedas." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ "The Euro. Our money." (PDF). ECB. p. 3. http://www.ecb.int/pub/pdf/other/eurobren.pdf. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
- ^ Banky Foiben'i Madagasikara. Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
- ^ [www.bankofguyana.org.gy Bank of Guyana]. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ Centrale Bank van Aruba. About Us - A Brief History of the Bank." Accessed 23 Feb 2011.
- ^ a b Forexforums.com. "Currency symbol finder." Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
- ^ National Bank of Rwanda. "Legal tender." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ University of British Columbia: Saunders School of Business. "Currencies of the World." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ Lonely Planet. "Rwanda." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ Banco de Moçambique. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ Banque Centrale de Mauritanie. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ Bank of Mauritius. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ Nepal Rastra Bank. Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
- ^ Central Bank of Seychelles. Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ Central Bank of Somalia. Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
- ^ The Reserve Bank of Vanuatu. "Current Banknotes and Coins in Circulation." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
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