Units Place - Counter-value Notation

Counter-value Notation

In East Asian numbering like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Mongolian numerals, counter-value notation may be used where the place value is indicated by the following counter or lack of a following counter. It was once used in Vietnamese, which now only uses Hindu-Arabic numerals. Almost universally in counter-value notation the units place is left without a counter and it is the only place left counterless. It may not even be written at all as placeholders are unnecessary, as such 0 is a rare sight in such systems but most likely to appear in the units place. It is 0 in Mongolian and 〇 or 零 in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The last character has one variant for Traditional Chinese and another for Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.

In Japanese, Korean, and Mongolian, counter-value notation is restricted to integers and, in a few instances, fractions. In Chinese counter-value notation, however, Mixed numbers may be written, where the integral is that before the "again" symbol, 又. With integers or the integer section if the last character is not a counter, it is the units place. If it is a counter, the units place is 0.