In which files is the money icon. Designation of currencies of the world
The Russian ruble has finally acquired an official graphic symbol - now the national currency will be denoted by the crossed-out letter "R". About why currencies need special graphic signs and why most symbols of the monetary units of the world contain horizontal "dashes" - in the material of the site.
Why do currencies need graphic symbols
Not every currency in the world can boast of its own sign. So, Latvian lats, Swiss francs, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish kronas, Croatian kunas and many others do without special characters. monetary units peace. In total, according to the global Unicode standard (a standard for encoding characters and signs of written languages), at the moment only about thirty world currencies have officially registered graphic symbols. Among them there are already unused ones - for example, the signs of the Italian lira (£), German mark (ℳ), French franc (₣), obsolete after the introduction of the euro.
Meanwhile, it is hard not to admit that currencies that have their own graphic symbols are much more widespread than monetary units that do not have their own symbols. Thus, the dollar ($), pound (£), euro (€), as well as the yen (¥) are undoubtedly not only the most popular, but also the most powerful and influential currencies in the world.
Ruble symbol approval
Introduction of the official symbol Russian ruble, according to the Bank of Russia, was the most important event in the country's economy. "Moscow claims to be an international financial center. An objective need has formed for the introduction of a symbol national currency recognized within the country and abroad," Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina said on December 11, presenting the approved designation Russian currency.
The adoption of one sign as a designation of the monetary unit allows, in addition, to unify all variants of its former spelling: for example, after the official approval of the ruble symbol, you no longer have to doubt how best to say about the ruble in written speech - 100 rubles, 100 r. or 100 rubles.
What do the symbols of different world currencies have in common
Some of the graphic images of monetary units developed naturally, as a result of various historical events, and some were formed during the development of many options, as well as popular votes. So there are no special requirements for creating a symbol of a particular currency. However, the graphic image must be convenient and easy to write, otherwise it will be useless - after all, currency signs are introduced in order to become recognizable and replace the full names of currencies in writing.
Dollar, euro, pound, Japanese yen, Vietnamese dong, Israeli new shekel
Graphic designations of almost all currencies of the world have horizontal "dashes" in their structure. This is not only the British pound sterling (£), euro (€), Ukrainian hryvnia (₴), Japanese yen (¥), Kazakhstani tenge (₸) and, finally, the symbol of the Russian ruble that has received official status. Yes, symbols Indian rupee(₹), the South Korean won (₩), and many other world currencies are also written using one or more horizontal bars through.
Such stripes on signs are a universally recognized symbol of the stability of the currency in which they are written. That is why, as the representatives themselves said Central Bank Russia, the line is also used in the symbol of the ruble.
From Russia with love
The approved symbol of the Russian ruble, which is a crossed out "P", is not at all the first sign of the national currency, but the only one officially recognized. It should be added, however, that for a long time it was the most popular of the unofficial designations of the Russian currency.
During the time of the Russian Empire, there was a different way of writing the ruble: it was the combination of capital letters "r" and "u". According to the most common version, "p" was turned 90 degrees counterclockwise, and then "y" was written over the letter. Such a designation of the ruble was indicated not after the numbers, as today, but above them. However, despite the attempts of some publishers, such a sign of the ruble was not widely used in the press.
Now the graphic symbol of the ruble has become - and already quite legally - the crossed-out letter "R". This sign was approved on December 11 central bank Russia. The selected symbol was recognized as the most popular according to the results of the voting, which the Central Bank conducted on its website. A one ruble coin with a new graphic sign of the national currency will appear in circulation as early as 2014.
The approved designation of the ruble. Photo: cbr.ru
In early November, the Central Bank submitted for public discussion the graphic symbol of the ruble. The signs-finalists were selected by the working group of the Bank of Russia from more than three thousand options. The crossed-out "P" during the voting was supported by more than 61% of respondents.
Crossed letters and more
Since horizontal stripes are a fairly popular "attribute" of currency symbols, it is not surprising that there are already a number of monetary units in the world, the signs of which are very similar to the new ruble designation. Thus, most countries in which the peso is accepted for payment use the American dollar sign ($) or similar, with only two transverse stripes, to designate their currencies. But in the Philippines, the peso, meanwhile, is denoted by a different symbol - ₱, which is similar to the new designation of the Russian ruble.
Symbols of various currencies of the world: including the American dollar, the Korean won, the Netherlands Antilles guilder
The Nigerian naira is also crossed out - however, already with two stripes (₦). In addition, similar designations - in the form of crossed out letters - have the Ukrainian hryvnia (₴) and the Lao kip (₭).
In the graphic styles of some national currencies, horizontal lines are present in a different way. So, the new Israeli shekel looks more like a beautiful rectangular pattern (₪), the taka of the countries of Bangladesh looks like a solid sign from the Russian alphabet (৳), and the guilder of the Netherlands Antilles looks like a mathematical notation for a function (ƒ).
Where did the most famous currency symbols come from?
Today there is no single view on the origin of the $ sign, but it is quite possible that with its characteristic style american currency owes to the inhabitants of Foggy Albion. The fact is that the English king George III ordered at one time to use Spanish reais in circulation, which cost 1/8 English pound sterling. This money was called "piece of eight" ("a piece of eight"), which eventually turned into an abbreviated "peso". Soon they began to pay with them in the North American colonies of England, where they were also called dollars.
The crossed-out eight was wisely chosen as the written symbol for "piece of eight". However, soon such a spelling turned out to be too long and inconvenient, as a result of which the symbol turned into a "truncated" eight - $.
According to the theory of American patriots, however, $ originated differently: becoming a simplified combination of the letters "U" and "S" (the first letter of the name of the United States - US), superimposed on each other. Another version of the appearance of the American dollar symbol says that the "progenitors" of the $ sign were the Spaniards, who in writing denoted the peso currency by combining the letters "P" and "S".
The roots of whimsical writing British pound sterling lie in the Latin letter "L", supplemented horizontally by a line (or two lines) in the middle. The very same "L" comes from the Latin word libra (libra, pound), denoting the main measure of weight in Ancient Rome and England.
Pound - £ or ₤ - is used not only in Great Britain, but also in some other countries of the world.
Euro, as a young currency, received its sign as a result of an analysis of European public opinion. It is believed that the authors of the € were four experts, whose names, for some reason, it was decided not to disclose.
According to the European Commission, the graphic image of the euro carries the significance of European civilization (it is symbolized by the Greek letter "epsilon"), identity with Europe itself (the letter "E") and stability (parallel lines crossing the letter).
From $ to €
1972 dates back to the first use of the symbol of any (some) currency. It may be necessary if, for example, the sign of the desired currency is not available in the computer font.
Designation of any currency
The sign of a certain currency is a circle, from which, like from the sun, four rays depart at an angle of 90 degrees with respect to each other.
Anna Teplitskaya
31.03.2018
In everyday life "ossi". (1 "ossi" = 100 cents). The Australian Aussie is the 6th most traded currency in the world. Since 1988, a special thin plastic with a high degree of security has been used for the manufacture of banknotes.
World currency codes. Designation of currencies of the world
- World currency codes include three-digit numeric and alphabetic designations based on the global ISO 4217 standard (the first two letters are the designation of the state and one is the designation of the currency).
- Currency symbols - signs for the unique designation of a currency. Some of them originated in the 17th and 18th centuries. as a result of the evolution of writing (dollar $, pound £), others - in modern times(euro €).
World currency codes. Designation (symbols) of world currencies.
Andorra, Montenegro and Kosovo in unilaterally accepted the euro. The yen, or ya, is the currency of Japan. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the US dollar, euro and pound sterling. The romanized character is ¥, and in Japanese it is also written with the kanji 円.
While no specific usage of the currency is used, large amounts of the yen are often counted in the thousands of thousands, just as currencies in the United States are often listed or rounded to the hundreds of thousands. The yen was legally defined as 78 ounces of fine silver, or 1.5 grams of fine gold. The law also placed Japan on the gold standard system or gold regime.
Currency Letter code of currencies Numeric currency code Currency designation Australian dollar AUD 036 AU$ Canadian dollar CAD 124 C$ Swiss frank CHF 756 Swedish krona SEK 752 kr New Zealand dollar NZD 554 NZ$ Japanese yen JPY 392 ¥ British pound GBP 826 £ American dollar USD 840 $ Single European currency EUR 978 € Hong Kong dollar HKD 344 $ South Korean Won KRW 410 ₩ Danish krone DKK 208 kr Norwegian krone NOK 578 kr Singapore dollar SGD 702 S$ South African rand ZAR 710 R Israeli shekel ILS 376 ₪
The designation of world currencies is used to simplify the view economic information. Each currency has its own three-digit code, where the first two letters indicate the country, and the last third letter is the name of the currency itself (dollar - D, franc - F, pound - P).
This procedure for the three-digit designation of currencies is regulated special standard ISO 4217. international organization standardization in 1978 recommended that all countries use three-letter and three-digit currency codes.
Know currency symbols
When you start trading in the Forex market, it would be wise to start with the seven major currencies. It's also wise to start with your country's currency if you live in one of the seven major countries, as you'll be better at judging the currency's value. You should be aware that in the Forex market, currencies are usually expressed with an alphabetical alphabet of three letters.
The symbols for the seven leading currencies are listed below. For more information about the number and symbols of coins in the world. But what if, instead of depicting figures from the past, banknote illustrations and designs reflect and promote contemporary values and people's achievements? The answer to this question can be found in the variants of Metodi Zheynov.
Any currency symbol:
The main purpose of this use of the designation of currencies was aimed at international documentation under international agreements, in which it would be more efficient to use the abbreviated names of currency codes to identify their names, since the names of some currencies are quite similar (US dollar, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, etc.).
Gender equality is one of the greatest achievements of Western civilization and the main asset of our modern culture. Every day we have money, but we look at those who silently look at securities? It turns out that national currencies are quite conservative, and the presence of a gentleman is more than episodic.
To avoid controversy, an alternative comes from Norway, which intends to print only five symbols on five banknotes related to nautical themes - a lighthouse, a ship, a fish, etc. Denmark has also adopted a money design that focuses on the story as a whole rather than individual figures.
Of course, each country has adapted the ISO 4217 standard to suit its needs. For example, in Russia there is All-Russian classifier currencies. Only the European Union uses ISO 4217 directly.
The designation of currencies, according to the ISO 4217 standard, has been improved several times: digital codes have been introduced, data on fractional monetary units have been entered.
There are calls in the US and Canada to feature at least one woman on banknotes. A similar campaign also took place in the UK, with a successful conclusion after the country's Central Bank approved Jane Austen's imprint on the £10 note. But does the woman come to the currency of every country?
Dollars are the faces of the founding fathers of the American state and former presidents, China's currency necessarily represents the communist chief Mao, India put Mahatma Gandhi in circulation, but not a single banknote in these countries represents a woman.
In order to facilitate the use of the ISO 4217 standard, the designation of currencies was displayed in special tables - lists that indicate the name of the currency, the place of currency circulation, a three-letter alphabetic code, a three-digit alphabetic code, and decimal places for monetary units.
It is clear that some currencies are going out of circulation, so they are marked in additions to the ISO 4217 standard with an explanation of the reasons for such changes, and the dates of input and output of information.
In the United States, the $20 bill campaign is run by a woman in place of the seventh president, Andrew Jackson, known for forced Indian migration to the West and his views on how the then National Bank might operate.
Among the preferred names are Rosa Parks, Margaret Sanger and Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and one of the most prominent voices on American slavery. Our money tells the story and what our society represents. If we're talking about gender equality and social exclusion, then we need to change the currency, said activist Susan Stones.
All changes in the designation of currencies are officially published on their website by a special agency - SIX Interbank Clearing in English and French.
The most interesting thing is that since 1978, during the use of the designation of world currencies, practically all available currency signs have been used, therefore, for new currencies, they came up with the letter N, from the English word - new.
When we open our wallets, we see the faces of four former prime ministers and Queen Elizabeth, a silent message that Canadian women are not worth honoring. Sexual banknotes are unacceptable in a country that wants to become a world leader in gender equality, says historian Merna Forster, also part of the campaign.
Sweden's central bank divides banknotes equally, and the new crown design, which will be unveiled by the end of next year, will feature three men and three women - Greta Garbo, Astrid Lindgren and opera singer Brigitte Nielsen. Australia also has gender parity in its national currency, except that each note has a man on one side and a woman on the other.
Currency codes were needed to automate and unify currency designations, so each country develops them independently, taking into account the ISO 4217 standard.
The letter designation of the currencies of the world
Currency name | Currency code | |
Australian dollar | AUD | 036 |
Austrian shilling | ATS | 040 |
Belgian franc | BEF | 056 |
British pound | GBP | 826 |
Canadian dollar | CAD | 124 |
Czech crown | CZK | 203 |
Danish krone | DKK | 208 |
Dutch guilder | NLG | 528 |
Estonian kroon | EEK | 233 |
Single European currency | EUR | 978 |
Finnish stamp | FIM | 246 |
French franc | FRF | 250 |
deutsche mark | DEM | 276 |
Greek drachma | GRD | 300 |
Hong Kong dollar | HKD | 344 |
Hungarian forint | HUF | 348 |
Irish pound | IEP | 372 |
Italian lira | ITL | 380 |
Japanese yen | JPY | 392 |
Latvian lats | LVL | 428 |
Lithuanian litas | LTL | 440 |
Mexican peso | MXN | 484 |
New Zealand dollar | NZD | 554 |
Norwegian krone | NOK | 578 |
Polish zloty | PLN | 985 |
Portuguese escudo | RTE | 620 |
Russian ruble | RUB | 643 |
Singapore dollar | SGD | 702 |
Slovak koruna | SKK | 703 |
South African rand | ZAR | 710 |
Spanish peseta | ESP | 724 |
Swedish krona | SEK | 752 |
Swiss frank | CHF | 756 |
Ukrainian hryvnia | USD | 980 |
American dollar | USD | 840 |
Surely you noticed when you filled out a payment order in your bank that you have columns of currency codes: for the dollar - 840, for the euro - 978, for the Russian ruble - 643, Ukrainian hryvnia – 980.
The symbol of the Euro was proposed by the Belgian machinist Alain Billiet. Individual national banknotes and coins will expire. It's just old-fashioned, says American designer Massimo Vignilli. Montreal typographer Neil Kandalgaonkar shows on his page the difficulties involved in writing the euro in regular handwriting. Also violated are residents of European countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland, who are losing their exceptionally successful banknotes.
Billiet defends himself by offering a universal symbol that is not interchangeable or misunderstood around the world. Although the euro is supported by version 5, it is placed in the position of an obscure emblem for an international currency, which is unfortunately found in Czech scripts. Therefore, you can put the euro only from the Roman, that is, without the Czech characters.
World currency symbols
In addition to currency signs and currency codes, there are also currency symbols $, £, ¥, €, which you often see in everyday life.
The history of the dollar symbol $ has a number of versions.
The first version says that in 1492, King Ferdinand II of Aragon from Spain approved a symbol that looked like the Pillars of Hercules entwined with a ribbon as his currency.
The second version tells the appearance of the dollar symbol between 1573 and 1825. in Potosi, which at that time was the largest industrial center in the world, and was located on the territory of modern Bolivia. The fact is that the coins that were in circulation at that time in Potosi are very similar to the modern dollar symbol.
The third version tells about the similarity of the modern dollar symbol with the monetary unit sestertia from Ancient Rome. The sestertia was designated as IIS.
And according to the fourth version, it is assumed that the $ symbol was obtained as a result of the contraction of the Spanish peso. That is, in a singular expression, peso was abbreviated as ps. Later, ps was simplified to a single letter S, which was simply crossed out by the missing letter p, and the $ symbol came out.
With other currencies, everything is easier. The pound symbol £ comes from the Latin word libra, which means scales. At that time, the value of a pound was equal to a pound of silver.
The designation of the euro currency - € arose as a result of a sociological survey of the population. That is, the people themselves chose what their national symbol should look like. The euro itself is a very young European currency, which was born in 1999. The € symbol, according to the European Commission, denotes two elements: the importance of Europe in the Greek letter Epsilon, and the stability of the currency in two parallel lines.
The symbol for the Japanese yen currency - ¥ arose as a result of drawing two parallel lines on the Latin letter Y. The Japanese describe their currency with the character 円.
Most countries of the world, when designating currencies, do not bother with a special invention, but simply take abbreviations of the first letters in the name of the country. So, in Poland, złoty is denoted as zł, and the former German Deutsche Mark is simply abbreviated as DM.
Some countries designate their currencies with a symbol that is associated with the dollar. For example, the Nicaraguan cordoba looks like C$.
The shekel currency designation in Israel in Hebrew stands for the first letters of the currency name - ₪.
The history of the designation of the Russian ruble indicates that the very name of the ruble was first encountered in the 13th century and meant a pound of silver, which weighed one hryvnia and was cut into pieces. Over time, the symbol of the ruble has changed. In the XVII - XIX centuries the ruble was depicted by combining two letters R and U. The modern symbol of the Russian ruble was approved only at the end of 2013 and denotes the letter R with a horizontal line crossing the letter R - ₽ (but this symbol is not displayed correctly for everyone yet, since such a symbol appeared in Unicode tables quite recently).
Thus, we have dealt with the designations of the currencies of the world, examined the signs, codes and symbols of the main world currencies.
The designation of world currencies is used to simplify the type of economic information. Each currency has its own three-digit code, where the first two letters indicate the country, and the last third letter is the name of the currency itself (dollar - D, franc - F, pound - P).
This procedure for the three-digit designation of currencies is regulated by the special ISO 4217 standard. In 1978, the International Organization for Standardization recommended that all countries use three-letter and three-digit currency codes.
Any currency symbol:
The main purpose of this use of the designation of currencies was aimed at international documentation under international agreements, in which it would be more efficient to use the abbreviated names of currency codes to identify their names, since the names of some currencies are quite similar (US dollar, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, etc.).
Of course, each country has adapted the ISO 4217 standard to suit its needs. For example, Russia has its own All-Russian classifier of currencies. Only the European Union uses ISO 4217 directly.
The designation of currencies, according to the ISO 4217 standard, has been improved several times: digital codes have been introduced, data on fractional monetary units have been entered.
In order to facilitate the use of the ISO 4217 standard, the designation of currencies was displayed in special tables - lists that indicate the name of the currency, the place of currency circulation, a three-letter alphabetic code, a three-digit alphabetic code, and decimal places for monetary units.
It is clear that some currencies are going out of circulation, so they are marked in additions to the ISO 4217 standard with an explanation of the reasons for such changes, and the dates of input and output of information.
All changes in the designation of currencies are officially published on their website by a special agency - SIX Interbank Clearing in English and French.
The most interesting thing is that since 1978, during the use of the designation of world currencies, practically all available currency signs have been used, therefore, for new currencies, they came up with the letter N, from the English word - new.
Currency codes were needed to automate and unify currency designations, so each country develops them independently, taking into account the ISO 4217 standard.
The letter designation of the currencies of the world
Currency name | Currency code | |
Australian dollar | AUD | 036 |
Austrian shilling | ATS | 040 |
Belgian franc | BEF | 056 |
British pound | GBP | 826 |
Canadian dollar | CAD | 124 |
Czech crown | CZK | 203 |
Danish krone | DKK | 208 |
Dutch guilder | NLG | 528 |
Estonian kroon | EEK | 233 |
Single European currency | EUR | 978 |
Finnish stamp | FIM | 246 |
French franc | FRF | 250 |
deutsche mark | DEM | 276 |
Greek drachma | GRD | 300 |
Hong Kong dollar | HKD | 344 |
Hungarian forint | HUF | 348 |
Irish pound | IEP | 372 |
Italian lira | ITL | 380 |
Japanese yen | JPY | 392 |
Latvian lats | LVL | 428 |
Lithuanian litas | LTL | 440 |
Mexican peso | MXN | 484 |
New Zealand dollar | NZD | 554 |
Norwegian krone | NOK | 578 |
Polish zloty | PLN | 985 |
Portuguese escudo | RTE | 620 |
Russian ruble | RUB | 643 |
Singapore dollar | SGD | 702 |
Slovak koruna | SKK | 703 |
South African rand | ZAR | 710 |
Spanish peseta | ESP | 724 |
Swedish krona | SEK | 752 |
Swiss frank | CHF | 756 |
Ukrainian hryvnia | USD | 980 |
American dollar | USD | 840 |
You probably noticed when you filled out payment order in your bank that you have columns of currency codes: for the dollar - 840, for the euro - 978, for the Russian ruble - 643, for the Ukrainian hryvnia - 980.
World currency symbols
In addition to currency signs and currency codes, there are also currency symbols $, £, ¥, €, which you often see in Everyday life.
The history of the dollar symbol $ has a number of versions.
The first version says that in 1492, King Ferdinand II of Aragon from Spain approved a symbol that looked like the Pillars of Hercules entwined with a ribbon as his currency.
The second version tells the appearance of the dollar symbol between 1573 and 1825. in Potosi, which at that time was the largest industrial center in the world, and was located on the territory of modern Bolivia. The fact is that the coins that were in circulation at that time in Potosi are very similar to the modern dollar symbol.
The third version tells about the similarity of the modern dollar symbol with the monetary unit sestertia from Ancient Rome. The sestertia was designated as IIS.
And according to the fourth version, it is assumed that the $ symbol was obtained as a result of the contraction of the Spanish peso. That is, in a singular expression, peso was abbreviated as ps. Later, ps was simplified to a single letter S, which was simply crossed out by the missing letter p, and the $ symbol came out.
With other currencies, everything is easier. The pound symbol £ comes from the Latin word libra, which means scales. At that time, the value of a pound was equal to a pound of silver.
The designation of the euro currency - € arose as a result of a sociological survey of the population. That is, the people themselves chose what their national symbol should look like. The euro itself is a very young European currency, which was born in 1999. The € symbol, according to the European Commission, denotes two elements: the importance of Europe in the Greek letter Epsilon, and the stability of the currency in two parallel lines.
The symbol for the Japanese yen currency - ¥ arose as a result of drawing two parallel lines on the Latin letter Y. The Japanese describe their currency with the character 円.
Most countries of the world, when designating currencies, do not bother with a special invention, but simply take abbreviations of the first letters in the name of the country. So, in Poland, złoty is denoted as zł, and the former German Deutsche Mark is simply abbreviated as DM.
Some countries designate their currencies with a symbol that is associated with the dollar. For example, the Nicaraguan cordoba looks like C$.
The shekel currency designation in Israel in Hebrew stands for the first letters of the currency name - ₪.
The history of the designation of the Russian ruble indicates that the very name of the ruble was first encountered in the 13th century and meant a pound of silver, which weighed one hryvnia and was cut into pieces. Over time, the symbol of the ruble has changed. In the 17th - 19th centuries, the ruble was depicted by combining the two letters R and U. The modern symbol of the Russian ruble was approved only at the end of 2013 and denotes the letter R with a horizontal line crossing the letter R - ₽ (but this symbol is not displayed correctly for everyone yet, since such a symbol appeared in Unicode tables quite recently).
Thus, we have dealt with the designations of the currencies of the world, examined the signs, codes and symbols of the main world currencies.
The most common currencies used in different countries of the world, have a huge impact on the processes on financial markets. Each currency unit is designated with a special symbol. This makes any of them recognizable and avoids confusion. Today, almost everyone can immediately distinguish between such signs of world currencies as the US dollar and sterling, the euro and the Japanese yen. Each of these symbols has its own history of origin and carries a certain meaning. In this material, it is proposed to consider the signs of the most popular world currencies.
U.S. dollar
Today, there are several versions of the origin of the sign of this currency. Some people are of the opinion that the symbol "$" came to the US from Spain. At the time of the discovery of the American continent, the Spanish currency was the real. It was equal to 1/8 of the English pound sterling. This ratio was the reason for the name of the real, which was fixed among the British - "peace of ait" (1/8). And, accordingly, the sign of the real currency was chosen in the form of a vertically crossed-out eight.
According to another version, the symbol "$" originates from the name of the US state. Thus, American patriots believe that the first two letters of the English name USA form a dollar sign. As evidence, the argument is given that this symbol was used as a postal stamp for government correspondence.
Another curious version of how the "$" currency sign came about is another "Spanish" variant. So, it is alleged that when exporting gold from the territory of the colonies on the American continent, the stamp “S” was placed on the goods. It symbolized the country of the recipient - Spain. After arriving in Spanish ports, a vertical strikethrough was added to the sign, and when sending cargo in the opposite direction, the symbol was marked with another additional line.
English pound
The English pound currency sign "₤" is a combination of two characters: the Latin letter L and two horizontal strokes. Sometimes a single bar symbol (£) is used to represent this currency. It would be opportune to say that a similar sign is used for other world currencies. For example, with its help, the Turkish lira is also indicated. The Latin word libra was used to define a measure of weight in ancient Rome and later in England.
The monetary unit of the European Union
The sign of the currency of the European Union "€" was chosen based on the results of a sociological survey, in which residents of the member countries of the Commonwealth took part. The symbol was officially introduced at the end of 1996. It should be noted that the euro is a very young currency. Symbols of the world's currencies, such as the symbol for the dollar, the pound sterling, the yuan, and the yen, have a much longer history. Officially, the euro began to be used in early 1999. The sign was developed by the European Commission, which chose a combination of two symbols: the Greek letter "epsilon" and two parallel strokes, symbolizing the stability of the new monetary unit.
Swiss frank
A few years ago in Europe there were a number of currencies that bore the name "franc". However, today only the Swiss representative of this monetary unit is used in circulation. The sign "Fr" itself consists of a combination of two letters: an uppercase "F" and a lowercase "r". The appearance of the franc currency in Europe dates back to the XIV century. Then it began to be used in France.
Japanese yen and Chinese yuan
The name "yuan" appeared during the reign of the Qin dynasty in China. This is how silver coins were called in those days. Local hieroglyphs were used for designation. Nowadays, the international sign is a combination of the Latin letter "Y" and a horizontal line.
Russian ruble
The ruble is the official currency in Russian Federation. In addition, at one time the same name was given to money in the Russian principalities, the Russian kingdom, the Russian Empire and the USSR. It should also be noted that the Republic of Belarus uses its own rubles.
The modern symbol of the Russian monetary unit consists of the capital letter "R" and one horizontal line crossing it out. An interesting fact is the fact that back in the 17th century, the sign of the ruble currency looked like a combination of two letters: “R” and “U”. The first of them was located at an angle of 90 degrees to the second counterclockwise. By the way, the very name "ruble" began to be used as early as the 13th century.
At present, the symbols of the currencies of various countries are used everywhere, and no one has a question why the euro, for example, is denoted as €. But the sign of the currency and its designation is an interesting topic, behind which many interesting facts are hidden.
Why does money need graphic symbols?
Few currencies in the world can present their own signs. The following money does without special designations: Swiss francs, Croatian kunas, Latvian lats, etc. According to the Unicode world standard, at present only thirty world banknotes have officially fixed graphic symbols. Among them, there are those that are currently not used due to the introduction of the euro: this is the symbol of the French franc (₣).
It would seem, why write the euro currency sign in the form of symbols, if you can write 100 euros, and not 100 €?
There are several factors according to which short designations of a particular currency are introduced into use:
- Such signs are very convenient, because as soon as they do not denote the ruble: rub. or ruble. It looks unoriginal and is not always clear to foreigners.
- Having your own designation for the currency is prestigious. Such banknotes are automatically classified as strong and successfully developing.
When a state is able to develop, approve and include a currency symbol in UNICODE, it can be said that the country has increased its authority at the world level.
Signs of world currencies and the main requirements for them
When developing a designation for any country, designers adhere to the following requirements:
- The symbol must be one character. If the designation has 2 or more of them, it will cause both inconvenience when reading and difficulty in writing.
- It should be easily recognized by the citizens of the country who use this currency. It's great if foreigners recognize it, because the symbol of any currency is unique.
- The designation should not depend on the font. The sign must be recognized in any font system.
- All symbols have width restrictions: if we consider all currency symbols, they are no thicker than 0.
- The icon should not be overloaded with additional elements (wavy lines, etc.).
- The symbol must be unique, not like any other.
When designing symbols, strict requirements are taken into account, so sometimes they contain similar elements: vertical or horizontal dashes, and possibly two. Such symbols denote stability, and this is the main thing that all the currencies of the world strive for.
The history of the appearance of the symbol of the Russian ruble
The most famous symbols that denote a particular currency have their own history of occurrence.
The well-known designation of the ruble (₽) is represented as the letter P, which is crossed out from below by a horizontal line. It denotes stability and distinguishes a currency sign from a letter of the alphabet.
During the Russian Empire, the ruble was written differently: the capital letters "r" and "y" were combined. According to the most common version, the letter "r" turned 90 degrees and the letter "y" was written on top of it. The sign turned out to be unique, but it turned out to be difficult to use it, especially in writing.
Therefore, the designation did not take root, and the symbol had to be invented anew.
The process of developing the ruble designation is interesting:
- The Central Bank of Russia held 2 tenders on this issue. The first was held in 2007, but all proposals were not very original.
- The next competition was held in 2013, but no new version of the ruble symbol was invented.
Font design masters Alexander Tarbeev and Vladimir Efimov were involved in the process of designing the designation.
Now the ruble (₽) currency sign, which was approved by the Central Bank of Russia, is officially recognized. The designation is implemented in UNICODE.
Single currency symbol
The designation of the currency of the European Union (€) was approved after a sociological survey of citizens of the member countries of the Commonwealth. This badge was officially introduced in 1996. The authors are considered to be four specialists, whose details are not disclosed.
The logo was chosen very well. According to the opinion of the commission that made the final decision, the sign shows:
- The significance of European civilization, because it includes the Greek letter "epsilon".
- Stability, which is confirmed by two parallel horizontal lines.
- Identification with Europe (letter E).
The euro is considered one of the youngest monetary units of the planet. Symbols of the currencies of the world, such as the signs of the dollar, yuan and yen, have a longer history of development.
Where did the $ notation come from?
With the designation in the form of the Latin letter S, which is crossed out by one (two) vertical lines, many inhabitants of the planet are familiar, regardless of whether they are faced with the field of finance or not. The exact version of the appearance of this designation is unknown, but there are several versions of the origin of the sign:
- Presumably, the $ sign has a lot to do with the spelling of US. If we shift U and S towards each other, we get the designation of the American currency.
- Another version is associated with Spain and its currency - the peso. 1 peso is equal to 8 reais, when writing to save time, this was done - / 8 /. Over time, perhaps, there was a simplification of the inscription: only halves of the eights remained, and the oblique lines turned into one vertical one.
- The next version is also in Spanish. Ps was used to designate plurals, then only a line remained from P, and the letter S became full. Only this version has documentary evidence from 1778. In this message, a certain Olliver Polak first wrote Ps and then corrected it to $.
- Do not abandon the version associated with the Roman theme. The Romans used to designate the sestertium as LLS, then the spelling was reduced, and the well-known $ was obtained. It is impossible to refuse such an option, because in the US Congress the upper house was called the Senate.
- The last version of the origin of $ - this is how the printed sheets were designated. Previously, their number was denoted by sh, in this case, s resembled the number 5 in writing. Then h was transformed into a line that overlapped S.
Currently, the most popular currencies in the world are represented, including the US currency. And the sign of the American currency is known to the whole world, and it is not possible to establish exactly where it came from.
Ukrainian currency symbol
In Ukraine, they thought about introducing the designation of their national currency back in 2004. First, the National Bank of Ukraine held a corresponding competition for a currency symbol, and as a result, the best option was chosen.
The hryvnia is a rather old name of the monetary unit, but it did not have a separate designation. Finding the right one was not difficult. The sign of the Ukrainian currency is presented in the form of "₴", where the main part of the symbol resembles the letter g, and two horizontal lines are added to it. The dashes, as in all other signs, symbolize stability.
Some historians were able to notice the coincidence of the designation of the currency with the Roman sextula. The symbol for 0.5 sextules is exactly like ₴, although looking for Roman roots in this situation is pointless.
Japanese yen and Chinese yuan
The yen has been the currency of Japan since 1871. It is considered the main reserve monetary unit of the world after the US dollar and the euro. This happened thanks to the steadily developing economy of the Land of the Rising Sun.
The international designation is ¥, and in the country itself, a hieroglyph is used on price tags. The official date of the appearance of this sign is considered to be 1953, when the IMF, in order to help restore the Japanese economy, officially equated 1 yen to 2.5 g of gold. Then there was a corresponding designation.
In addition, the yen symbol is also used for Chinese yuan. When written, the yuan should be with one dash, but in practice this is not done.
English pound sign
The British pound, despite its fall associated with Brexit, is considered one of the most stable currencies in the world. The sign is denoted - £, which resembles the Latin letter L, supplemented by one or two horizontal dashes in the middle.
The history of its origin is connected with Ancient Rome and its system of measurement. The pound got its name from the phrase "liberal weight". In the past, 1 pound of silver made 240 coins. Therefore, libral or true weight was used to determine the quality of coins or their degree of wear.
The designation of currencies in the form of symbols is not at all a mandatory procedure, because there are many monetary units in the world that use abbreviations. However, if the state has a separately developed symbol, then it is considered that its currency is stable and reliable. Symbols are not only the monetary units of countries with a rich historical past. There is a sign of the euro currency in the European Union, formed recently.