Ruble sign
| ₽ | |
|---|---|
Ruble sign | |
| In Unicode | U+20BD ₽ RUBLE SIGN |
| Currency | |
| Currency | Russian ruble |
| Different from | |
| Different from | U+20B1 ₱ PESO SIGN (Philippines); U+2CE8 ⳨ COPTIC SYMBOL TAU RO (staurogram) |
 Category | |
The ruble sign, ₽, is the currency sign used for the Russian ruble, the official currency of Russia. The design was approved by the Central Bank of Russia on 11 December 2013.[1] It is based on the Cyrillic capital letter "Р."[2] Depending on convention in each nation, the symbol can either precede or follow the value, e.g., ₽10 or 10 ₽, often with an intervening space.[3]
History
[edit]
During the Russian Empire, a ruble currency symbol was in use between the 16th and 18th centuries. It consisted of the Cyrillic letters “Р” (rotated 90° counter-clockwise) and “У” placed above it, and was written above the numerical amount. The symbol fell out of use during the 19th century. In the later Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, no official currency symbol was used, and abbreviations such as “R” and “руб.” remained in use.[4]
In 1999, the newspaper Kommersant, in cooperation with the Portfolio Club, organised a “Rouble Sign” competition initiated by Petr Bankov. The results of this contest later served as a reference point for subsequent design efforts. Several further competitions were held, although the proposed symbols remained broadly similar in appearance.[5]
On 1 July 2007, the Federal Statute on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation came into force, providing for the introduction of a graphic symbol for the ruble.[3][5] Following this, the Central Bank of Russia organised a public selection process, presenting 13 design proposals. Among the shortlisted options was “РР”, an abbreviation of Российский рубль (“Russian ruble”), which received preliminary approval.[4]
On 1 August 2007, a separate design featuring a Cyrillic letter “Р” with a horizontal stroke, proposed by a group of designers, including Art. Lebedev Studio, began circulating unofficially.[3] This design, visually similar to the Armenian letter “ք”, gained wider public recognition.[4] On 11 December 2013, the Central Bank of Russia formally approved this design as the official ruble symbol, following a public vote in which it received 61% of more than 284,000 votes.[1]
On 21 January 2014, the Russian National Body of ISO/IEC JTC 1 submitted an application for the ruble symbol’s inclusion in The Unicode Standard.[6] A separate proposal was submitted by Michael Everson on 4 February 2014.[7] The symbol was subsequently approved for inclusion in Unicode 7.0 and encoded as U+20BD ₽ RUBLE SIGN in the Currency Symbols block.[8]
Design
[edit]The currency symbol consists of a capital letter “Р” crossed by two horizontal bars, one extending from the lower part of the bowl of the “Р” and a second parallel bar positioned at a distance equal to one stroke width above it.[7]
Its design was based on principles of simplicity, typographic clarity, and ease of use. These included recognisability in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts, legibility at small sizes, ease of handwriting, and suitability as a single-grapheme symbol for use in tabular composition. It was also designed to be font-independent, to maintain consistent visual weight, and to align in width with numerals such as zero. The design aimed to ensure both domestic recognisability and international comprehensibility.[5]
Other uses of the symbol
[edit]The cryptocurrency Petro, backed by government of Venezuela, uses the same symbol as the Ruble, although usually with a rounder upper part ( 
). A currency symbol used in the Pokémon media franchise is visually similar to the Ruble sign but instead has two strokes ( 
).
References
[edit]
- ^ a b Perlberg, Steven (2013-12-11). "Currency Geeks Rejoice, Russia Has A New Symbol For The Rouble". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2026-04-21. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ^ "Cash Circulation". Bank of Russia. Archived from the original on 2026-04-21. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ^ a b c Lebedev, Artemy (2009-03-25). "§ 159. Introduction of the rouble sign". Art. Lebedev Studio. Archived from the original on 2026-04-21. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ^ a b c Ben Efraim, Yigal. "The Russian Ruble Symbol". Symbols.com. Archived from the original on 2026-04-21. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ^ a b c "On the rouble sign". Art. Lebedev Studio. 2007-08-01. Archived from the original on 2026-04-21. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ^ "Proposal to add the currency sign for the RUSSIAN RUBLE to the UCS" (PDF). Unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. 2014-01-21. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2026-01-30. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ^ a b Michael, Everson (2014-02-04). "Proposal to encode the RUBLE SIGN in the UCS" (PDF). Unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Archived (PEF) from the original on 2026-01-30. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ^ "On including ruble symbol in UNICODE | Bank of Russia". Bank of Russia. 2014-06-11. Archived from the original on 2026-04-21. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
