Currency symbol
A currency symbol or currency sign is a graphic symbol used as a shorthand for a currency's name, especially in reference to amounts of money.
Usage
When writing currency amounts, the location of the symbol varies by language. Many currencies in the English-speaking world and Latin America place it before the amount. The Cape Verdean escudo places its symbol in the decimal separator position. In many European countries such as France, the symbol is usually placed after the amount.The decimal separator also follows local countries' standards. For instance, the United Kingdom often uses an interpunct as the decimal point on handwritten price stickers, but a full stop in print. Commas or decimal points are common separators used in other countries.
Design
Older currency symbols have evolved slowly, often from previous currencies. The dollar and peso symbols originated from the mark employed to denote the Spanish Spanish dollar, 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. In 2009, India launched a public competition to replace the ₨ ligature that it shared with neighbouring countries. It finalised its new currency symbol, ₹ on 15 July 2010. It is a blend of the Latin letter 'R' with the Devanagari letter 'र'.There are also other considerations, such as how the symbol is rendered on computers and typesetting. For a new symbol to be used, software to render it needs to be distributed and keyboard mappings need to be altered or shortcuts added to type the icon. For example, the European Commission was criticized for not considering how the euro symbol would need to be customized to work in different fonts. 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.
List of currency symbols currently in use
Some of these symbols are rare because the currency sub-unit that they represent is obsolete or obsolescent due to currency inflation.| Symbol | Uses | Notes |
| ¤ | Generic currency sign | Used when the correct symbol is not available. |
| ؋ | Afghan afghani | |
| Ar | Malagasy ariary | |
| ฿ | Thai baht | Used for Bitcoin in cases where the Bitcoin Sign is unavailable |
| B/. | Panamanian balboa | |
| Br | Ethiopian birr; Belarusian ruble | |
| ₿ | Bitcoin | Cryptocurrency, introduced in Unicode 10.0 |
| Bs.S. | Venezuelan bolívar variant | Usually Bs. |
| GH₵ | Ghana cedi | |
| ¢ | cent, centavo, etc. | A centesimal subdivision of currencies such as the US dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Mexican peso. See also c |
| c | cent etc. 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 ¢ |
| 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. |
| C$ | Nicaraguan córdoba | |
| 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 | Latin form: I.Q.D. |
| 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; Dhs |
| د.إ | United Arab Emirates dirham | Latin forms DH; Dhs |
| Db | São Tomé and Príncipe dobra | |
| $ | Australian, Bahamian, Barbadian, Belizean, Bermudian, Brunei, Canadian, Cayman Islands, East Caribbean, Fiji, Guyanese, Hong Kong, Jamaican, Kiribati, Liberian, Namibian, New Zealand, Singaporean, Solomon Islands, Surinamese, New Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tuvaluan, United States, dollars Argentine, Chilean, Colombian, Cuban, Cuban convertible, Dominican, Mexican, and Uruguayan pesos | May appear with either one or two bars, which share the same Unicode space. Kiribati's and Tuvalu's dollars are pegged 1:1 to the Australian dollar. Brunei's dollar is pegged 1:1 to the Singaporean dollar. See also C$, MOP$, R$, T$, WS$. Unicode: See $ for variants. |
| ₫ | Vietnamese đồng | |
| Armenian dram | ||
| Esc | Cape Verdean escudo | Also the double-barred dollar sign : |
| € | Euro | In addition to the members of the eurozone, the Vatican, San Marino, Monaco and Andorra have been granted issuing rights for coinage but not banknotes. |
| ƒ | Aruban florin Netherlands Antillean guilder | |
| Ft | Hungarian forint | |
| FBu | Burundian franc | |
| FCFA | Central African CFA franc | Pegged 1:1 to West African CFA franc. |
| CFA | West African CFA franc | Pegged 1:1 to Central African CFA franc. |
| F Fr, fr | Comorian, Congolese, Djiboutian, Guinean, and Swiss francs | Also and possibly.. |
| FRw | Rwandan franc | Possibly also RF and RFr |
| 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 krone ; Norwegian krone ; Swedish krona ; Icelandic króna ; Faroese króna | Faroese króna pegged 1:1 to Danish krone, which is in turn pegged to the Euro through the ERM. |
| kn | Croatian kuna | |
| Kz | Angolan kwanza | |
| K | Myanmar kyat; Papua New Guinean kina; Malawian kwacha; Zambian kwacha | |
| Georgian lari | Unicode: | |
| L | Albanian lek; Romanian leu; Moldovan leu; Honduran lempira | Also used as the currency symbol for the Lesotho one-loti and the Swazi one-lilangeni note. Also rarely used for the pound sign |
| Le | Sierra Leonean leone | |
| лв. | Bulgarian lev | |
| E | Swazi lilangeni | Symbol based on the plural form "emalangeni" However the one-lilageni note employs the currency symbol L |
| lp | Croatian lipa | A centesimal division of the kuna. |
| ₺ | Turkish lira | Unicode: |
| M | Lesotho loti | Symbol based on plural form "maloti". The one-loti note employs the symbol L |
| Azerbaijani manat | Also m. or man. Unicode: | |
| KM | Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark | Cyrillic form: КМ |
| MT | Mozambican metical | Also MTn |
| ₥ | Mill, mil, etc. | An uncommon millesimal subdivision of US dollars and other currencies. |
| Nfk | Eritrean nakfa | Also Nfa |
| ₦ | Nigerian naira | |
| Nu. | Bhutanese ngultrum | |
| UM | Mauritanian ouguiya | |
| T$ | Tongan paanga | |
| MOP$ | Macanese pataca | Also 圓 and 元 |
| p | Alderney, British, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Manx and Saint Helena pennies | The penny is now a centesimal division of the pound. |
| ₱ | Philippine peso | Also ₱, PHP, and P |
| pt | Egyptian piastre | A centesimal division of the Egyptian pound. A local symbol used in handwriting and occasionally print is represented by a stylised form of "Arabic Letter Dotless Qaf" ٯ placed above the digits. Due to inflation and lack of computer support its use is dwindling. |
| £ | Alderney, British, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Manx and Saint Helena pounds Egyptian pound | Also ₤ and L. All, except EGP, are pegged 1:1 to GBP. EGP also abbreviated "L.E.", and, in Arabic, ج.م. A local symbol used in handwriting and occasionally print is represented by a stylised dotless form of "Arabic Letter Jeem" ح placed above the digits,. Due to lack of computer support its use is dwindling. |
| 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 etc. rubles. |
| R$ | Brazilian real | The $ is sometimes written with a double bar like a double-barred dollar sign: |
| ﷼ | Iranian rial | Unicode: |
| ر.ع. | Omani rial | |
| ر.ق | Qatari riyal | Latin: QR |
| ر.س | Saudi riyal | Latin: SR. Also ﷼ |
| ر.ي | Yemeni rial | |
| ៛ | Cambodian riel | |
| RM | Malaysian ringgit | |
| Pridnestrovie ruble | ||
| ₽ | Russian ruble | Unicode: |
| Rf. | Maldivian rufiyaa | Also MRf., MVR and.ރ |
| ₹ | Indian rupee | Previously ₨ or Re. Unicode: |
| ₨ | Mauritian, Nepalese, Pakistani and Sri Lankan rupees | Unicode: |
| SRe | Seychellois rupee | Also SR |
| Rp | Indonesian rupiah | |
| ₪ | Israeli new shekel | |
| Tsh | Tanzanian shilling | Also TSh |
| Ksh | Kenyan shilling | Also KSh |
| Sh.So. | Somali shilling | |
| USh | Ugandan shilling | |
| S/ | Peruvian sol | |
| SDR | Special drawing rights | |
| , сом | Kyrgyzstani som | : Early in 2017 the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic approved an underlined C as new currency symbol. |
| ৳ | Bangladeshi Taka | Also Tk |
| WS$ | Samoan tālā | Symbol based on previous name "West Samoan tala". Also T and ST. See also $. |
| Kazakhstani tenge | ||
| ₮ | Mongolian tögrög | |
| VT | Vanuatu vatu | |
| ₩ | North Korean won; South Korean won | - |
| ¥ | Japanese yen ; Chinese Renminbi yuan | Used with one and two crossbars. 円 is usually used in Japan. 元 is also used in reference to the Macanese pataca and the Hong Kong and Taiwanese dollars. Unicode:, |
| zł | Polish złoty |
Other rupee symbols
List of historic currency symbols
Some of these symbols may not display correctly.| Symbol | Uses |
| ₳ | Argentine austral |
| Cz$ | Brazilian cruzado |
| ₢ Cr$ | Brazilian cruzeiro |
| ₰ | Pfennig, a subdivision of the German Mark and the German Reichsmark |
| M | East German Deutsche Mark |
| DM | West German and united German Deutsche Mark |
| ₻ | Nordic mark symbol used by Ludvig Holberg in Denmark and Norway in the 17th and 18th centuries |
| ₯ | Greek drachma |
| ₠ | ECU |
| 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 |
| ₤ | Lira, formerly used in Italy, San Marino and Vatican City, and sometimes in Malta |
| Lm | Maltese lira |
| Ls | Latvian lats |
| Lt | Lithuanian litas |
| M | East German Mark der DDR |
| ℳ | German Mark |
| MDN | East German Mark der Deutschen Notenbank |
| mk | Finnish markka |
| PF | Philippine peso fuerte |
| ₧ | Spanish peseta |
| R or RD | Swedish riksdaler |
| ℛℳ | German reichsmark |
| Portuguese escudo | |
| Sk | Slovak koruna |
| ₷ | Spesmilo in the Esperanto movement |
| ₶ | Livre tournois, used in medieval France |
| ? | 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 |
| £2 10s 3d, £2/10/3 | The United Kingdom and British Commonwealth countries, before decimalisation, used several recognised formats for amounts in pounds, shillings and pence, all for the same amount. A dash was often used to indicate a zero amount of pence or shillings, e.g. 3/- or £4/-/6d |
| I/. | Peruvian inti |
| ৲ | Bengali rupee mark |
| ৹ | Bengali ānā, historically used to represent 1/16th of a taka/rupee |
| ৻ | Bengali gaṇḍā, historically used to represent 1/20th of an ānā |
| ߾ | Dorome sign using the N'Ko alphabet |
| ߿ | Taman sign using the N'Ko alphabet |
| ? | Indic Siyaq rupee mark |