Currency symbol
A currency symbol 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 symbols for most official purposes,[citation needed] though currency symbols may be in common use in many other contexts. Few currencies in the world have no shorthand symbol at all.
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 "र" (ra).
Usage
When writing currency amounts the location of the symbol varies by currency. Many currencies, especially in the English-speaking world and Latin America, place it before the amount (e.g., R$50,00); many others place it after the amount (e.g., 50.00 SFr); and the Cape Verdean escudo places its symbol 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. $50.00) are common separators used in other countries. See decimal separator for information on international standards.
Design
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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 | Sometimes incorrectly used for Bitcoin |
 |
Bitcoin | |
| 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 ¢ |
| ct | Lithuanian centas | A centesimal division of the litas |
| 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 |
| Ð | Dogecoin | The "kÐ" symbol is commonly used to represent 1,000 Dogecoin |
| Db | São Tomé and Príncipe dobra | |
| $ | United States (US$), Australian (A$), Bahamian (B$), Barbadian (Bds$), Belizean (BZ$), Bermudian (BD$), Brunei (B$), Canadian (CA$), Cayman Islands (CI$), East Caribbean (EC$), Fiji (FJ$), Guyanese (G$),[5] Hong Kong (HK$/元/圓), Jamaican (J$), Kiribati, Liberian (L$ or LD$), Namibian (N$), New Zealand (NZ$), Singaporean (S$), Soloman Islands (SI$), Surinamese (SRD), Taiwanese (NT$/元/圓), Trinidad and Tobago (TT$), Tuvaluan, and Zimbabwean (Z$) 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$) Tongan paʻanga |
May appear with either one or two bars ( ), both of which currently share the same Unicode space.Kiribati and Tuvalu's dollars are pegged 1:1 with the Australian dollar. Brunei's dollar is pegged 1:1 with the Singaporean dollar. See also MOP$ and WS$ Unicode: See $ for variants. |
| ₫ | Vietnamese đồng | |
 |
Armenian dram | Unicode : ֏ |
| 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 |
| 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 
|
| h | Czech haléř | A centesimal division of the koruna |
| ₴ | Ukrainian hryvnia | |
| ₭ | Lao kip | Or ₭N |
| 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 | |
| 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 | Unicode: U+20BA ₺ TURKISH LIRA SIGN |
| Lt | Lithuanian litas | |
| Ł | Litecoin | |
| M | Lesotho loti | Symbol based on plural form "maloti". The one-loti note employs the currency symbol L |
 |
Azerbaijani manat | Also m. and man. Unicode: U+20BC ₼ MANAT SIGN (may display incorrectly) |
| 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 |
| Pt. | Egyptian piastre | A centesimal division of the Egyptian pound. |
| £ | British, Falkland Islands (FK£), Gibraltar, Manx (M£), St. Helena | Also ₤ and L, all pegged 1:1 to GBP |
| ج.م. | Egyptian pound | Latin: L.E. Rarely £E or E£ |
| 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 | Also the double-barred dollar sign:
|
| ريال | Iranian rial | Script for "rial", a currency name also used by other nations. |
| 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 | |
 |
Russian ruble | Unicode: U+20BD ₽ RUBLE SIGN |
| Rf. | Maldivian rufiyaa | Also MRf., MVR and .ރ |
| ₹ | Indian rupee | Previously ₨ or Re (before July 15, 2010) |
| ₨ | Mauritian,[13] Nepalese[14] (N₨/रू.) and Sri Lankan (SLRs/රු) rupees | |
| ₨ (PKR) | Pakistani Rupee | |
| 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 | Unicode: ₸ |
| ₮ | Mongolian tögrög | |
| VT | Vanuatu vatu[17] | |
| ₩ | North Korean and South Korean won | Unicode: U+20A9 ₩ WON SIGN, U+FFE6 ￦ FULLWIDTH WON SIGN; see also 원 |
| ¥ | Japanese yen (円/圓) Chinese Renminbi yuan (元/圆) |
Used with one and two crossbars. 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 |
| zł | Polish złoty |
Rupee symbols
| Language | Sign in Unicode |
|---|---|
| Sinhala | රු SINHALA RUPEE SIGN |
| Bengali | U+09F2 ৲ BENGALI RUPEE MARK U+09F3 ৳ BENGALI RUPEE SIGN |
| Gujarati | U+0AF1 ૱ GUJARATI RUPEE SIGN |
| Kannada | U+0CB0 ರ KANNADA LETTER RA |
| Tamil | U+0BF9 ௹ TAMIL RUPEE SIGN |
| North Indic | U+A838 ꠸ NORTH INDIC RUPEE MARK |
List of historic currency symbols
- ₳ Argentine austral symbol
- ₢ Cr$ Brazilian cruzeiro symbol
- ₰ pfennig symbol of the German Mark (1875–1923) and the German Reichsmark (1923–1948)
- DM East German Deutsche Mark (east) symbol (1948–1964)
- DM West German and united German Deutsche Mark (west) symbol (1948–2001)
- ₯ Greek drachma symbol
- ₠ ECU symbol (not widely used, and now historical; replaced by the euro)
- ƒ Dutch gulden symbol, currently used in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba
- Fr franc symbol, used in France and other countries; in France an F with double bar (₣) was proposed in 1988 but never adopted
- Kčs Czechoslovak koruna symbol (1919–1993)
- ₤ lira symbol, formerly used in Italy, San Marino and Vatican City (although not as an official symbol), and sometimes in Malta
- Lm Maltese lira symbol
- Ls Latvian lats symbol (1922–2013)
- M East German Mark der DDR symbol (1968–1990)
- ℳ German Mark symbol (1875–1923)
- MDN East German Mark der Deutschen Notenbank symbol (1964–1968)
- mk Finnish markka symbol
- ₧ Spanish peseta symbol
- R or RD Riksdaler, used in Sweden 1777–1873
- ℛℳ German reichsmark symbol (1923–1948)
Portuguese escudo symbol (cifrão)- s Latvian santīms - A centesimal division of the lats (obsoleted by the Euro)
- Sk Slovak koruna (1993–2008)
- ₷ Spesmilo (1907 – First World War) in the Esperanto movement
- ₶ Livre tournois symbol, 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
- ^ Template:Pt Banco de Cabo Verde. "Moedas." Accessed 25 Feb 2011.
- ^ "The real. rs money" (PDF). ECB. p. 3. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
- ^ Banky Foiben'i Madagasikara. Accessed 24 Feb 2011.
- ^ 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.
