A currency symbol or currency sign is a graphic symbol used to denote a currency unit. Usually it is defined by a monetary authority, such as the national central bank for the currency concerned.
A symbol may be positioned in various ways, according to national convention: before, between or after the numeric amounts:, and .
Symbols are neither defined nor listed by international standard ISO 4217, which only assigns three-letter codes.
When writing currency amounts, the location of the symbol varies by language. For currencies in English-speaking countries and in most of Latin America, the symbol is placed before the amount, as in . In most other countries, including many in Europe, the symbol is placed after the amount, as in . Exceptionally, the symbol for the Cape Verdean escudo (like the Portuguese escudo, to which it was formerly pegged) is placed in the decimal separator position, as in .[1]
Older currency symbols have evolved slowly, often from previous currencies. The modern dollar and peso symbols originated from the mark employed to denote the Spanish dollar,[2] whereas the pound and lira symbols evolved from the letter L (written until the seventeenth century in blackletter type as
ak{L}
Newly invented currencies and currencies adopting new symbols have symbolism meaningful to their adopter. For example, the euro sign is based on, an archaic form of the Greek epsilon, to represent Europe;[4] the Indian rupee sign is a blend of the Latin letter 'R' with the Devanagari letter (ra);[5] and the Russian Ruble sign is based on (the Cyrillic capital letter 'er').[6]
There are other considerations, such as how the symbol is rendered on computers and typesetting. For a new symbol to be used, its glyphs needs to be added to computer fonts and keyboard mappings already in widespread use, and keyboard layouts need to be altered or shortcuts added to type the new symbol. For example, the European Commission was criticized for not considering how the euro sign would need to be customized to work in different fonts.[7] The original design was also exceptionally wide. These two factors have led to most type foundries designing customized versions that match the 'look and feel' of the font to which it is to be added, often with reduced width.
| Telugu | U+0C30 <big>రూ</big> రూపాయి | Indian rupee | |
| Indian rupee / Sri Lankan rupee | |||
| Indian rupee | |||
| Indian rupee | |||
| රු + | Sri Lankan rupee | ||
| North Indic | Indian rupee | ||
| Wancho | [8] | Indian rupee |
| Symbol | Uses | |
|---|---|---|
| ₳ | Argentine austral (1985–1991) | |
| Cz$ | Brazilian cruzado (1986–1989) | |
| ₢$ | Brazilian cruzeiro (1942–1967) | |
| Cr$ | Brazilian cruzeiro (1970–1986) Brazilian cruzeiro (1990–1993) | |
| CR$ | Brazilian cruzeiro real (1993–1994) | |
| NCz$ | Brazilian cruzado novo (1989–1990) | |
| NCr$ | Brazilian cruzeiro novo (1967–1970) | |
| Rs$ | Brazilian real (1747–1942) | |
| ₰ | Pfennig, a subdivision of the German Mark (1875–1923) and the German Reichsmark (1923–1948) | |
| M | East German Deutsche Mark (east) (1948–1964) | |
| DM | West German and united German Deutsche Mark (west) (1948–2001) | |
| ₻ | Nordic mark symbol used by Ludvig Holberg in Denmark and Norway in the 17th and 18th centuries[9] | |
| ₯ | Greek drachma | |
| ₠ | ECU (1979–1998, not widely used and now historical; replaced by the euro) | |
| Eº | Chilean escudo (1960–1975) | |
| ƒ | Dutch gulden, currently used in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba | |
| Fr | Franc, used in France and other countries; in France an F with double bar (₣) was proposed in 1988 but never adopted | |
| Kčs | Czechoslovak koruna (1919–1993) | |
| Kn | Croatian kuna (1994–2023) | |
| ₤ | Italian lira (1861–2002) | |
| Lm | Maltese lira | |
| Lp | Lipa, a subdivision of the Croatian kuna (1994–2023) | |
| Ls | Latvian lats (1922–2013, not continuously) | |
| Lt | Lithuanian litas (1922–2014, not continuously) | |
| M | East German Mark der DDR (1968–1990) | |
| ℳ︁ | German Mark (1875–1923) | |
| MDN | East German Mark der Deutschen Notenbank (1964–1968) | |
| mk | Finnish markka (1860–2002) | |
| o$s | Argentine peso oro sellado (1881–1970) | |
| PF | Philippine peso fuerte (1852–1901) | |
| ₡ | Salvadoran colón (1892 - 2001) | |
| ₧ | Spanish peseta (1869–2002) | |
| R or RD | Swedish riksdaler (1777–1873) | |
| ℛ︁ℳ︁ | Reichsmark (1923–1948) | |
| Portuguese escudo (cifrão) | ||
| Sk | Slovak koruna (1993–2008) | |
| ₷ | Spesmilo (1907 First World War) in the Esperanto movement | |
| ₶ | Livre tournois (13th century1795) | |
| As coin used during the Roman Empire and Roman Republic | ||
| Denarius coin used in Ancient Rome from 211 BC to the 3rd century AD | ||
| Dupondius coin used during the Roman Empire and Roman Republic | ||
| Quinarius coin used in Ancient Rome from 211 BC to the 3rd century AD | ||
| Sestertius coin used in Ancient Rome from 211 BC to the 3rd century AD | ||
| I/. | Peruvian inti (1985-1991) | |
| ৲ | Bengali rupee mark[10] [11] | |
| ৹ | Bengali ānā, historically used to represent 1/16 of a taka or rupee | |
| ৻ | Bengali gaṇḍā, historically used to represent 1/20 of an ānā (1/320 of a taka or rupee) | |
| ߾ | Dorome sign using the N'Ko alphabet[12] | |
| ߿ | Taman sign using the N'Ko alphabet | |
| Indic Siyaq rupee mark[13] |