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. It finalized its new currency symbol, ₹ on 15 July 2010. It is a blend of the Latin letter 'R' with the Devanagari letter "".

Read more about Currency Sign:  Usage, Design, List of Presently-circulating Currency Signs, List of Historic Currency Signs

Famous quotes containing the words currency and/or sign:

    One of the reforms to be carried out during the incoming administration is a change in our monetary and banking laws, so as to secure greater elasticity in the forms of currency available for trade and to prevent the limitations of law from operating to increase the embarrassment of a financial panic.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    If we define a sign as an exact reference, it must include symbol because a symbol is an exact reference too. The difference seems to be that a sign is an exact reference to something definite and a symbol an exact reference to something indefinite.
    William York Tindall (1903–1981)