Currency symbol. Designation of the world's major monetary units

The most common currencies used in different countries of the world have a huge impact on the processes in the financial markets. Each currency is denoted by a special symbol. This makes any of them recognizable and avoids confusion. Today, almost everyone can immediately distinguish such signs of the world's currencies as the US dollar and the British pound sterling, the euro and the Japanese yen. Any of these symbols has its own history of origin and has 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 USA from Spain. During the opening of the American continent, the Spanish currency was real. It was equivalent to 1/8 of the British pound sterling. This ratio became the reason for the name of the real that was fixed by the Englishmen - "letters of emit" (1/8). And, accordingly, the sign of the real currency was chosen as a vertically crossed-out eight.

According to another version, the symbol "$" originates from the name of the US state. So, the American patriots believe that the first two letters of the English name USA form a dollar sign. As evidence, the argument is given, according to which this symbol was used as a post stamp on government correspondence.

Another curious version, as the currency sign "$", is another "Spanish" version. Thus, it is claimed that when exporting gold from the territory of the colonies on the American continent, the stamp "S" was placed on the goods. He symbolized the country of the recipient - Spain. After arriving at the Spanish ports, a vertical crossing was added to the sign, and when sending the goods in the opposite direction, the symbol was marked with one additional line.

English pound

The currency sign of the British pound sterling "₤" is a combination of two symbols: the Latin letter L and two horizontal strokes. Sometimes a single-bar symbol (£) is used to refer to this currency. It will be by the way to say that a similar sign is used for other world currencies. For example, it means the Egyptian pound and the Turkish lira. The Latin word libra was used to determine the weight measure in ancient Rome and later in England.

Monetary unit of the European Union

The currency sign of the European Union "€" was chosen based on the results of a sociological survey, participation was made by residents of the member countries of the Commonwealth. Officially, the symbol was introduced in late 1996. It should be noted that the euro is a very young monetary unit. Such signs of world currencies, as a symbol of the dollar, pound sterling, yuan and yen, have a much longer history. Officially, the euro began to be used in early 1999. The development of the sign was carried out by the European Commission, which for currency design chose a combination of two symbols: the Greek letter "epsilon" and two parallel strokes, symbolizing the stability of the new currency.

Swiss frank

A few years ago in Europe, there were a number of currencies that were called "francs." However, today only the Swiss representative of this monetary unit is in circulation. The sign "Fr" itself consists of a combination of two letters: uppercase "F" and lowercase "r". The appearance of the Frank currency in Europe dates back to the 14th century. Then it began to be used in France.

Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan

The Japanese yen has the symbol "¥". This currency is one of the world's officially recognized reserve currencies. This status of the yen was due to a strong economy and a technical breakthrough in Japan. A hieroglyph can be used to indicate the yen. True, this tradition is followed by the Japanese themselves on the territory of their country. In the rest of the world, the "¥" sign is used, which consists of the Latin letter "Y" and two horizontal strokes. It will be by the way to say that the progenitor of the Japanese yen is the Chinese yuan.

The name "yuan" appeared during the reign of the Qin Dynasty in China. Thus in those days silver coins were called. To indicate the monetary unit of China , local hieroglyphs were used. In our time, the international currency symbol of the yuan is a combination of the Latin letter "Y" and the horizontal line.

Russian ruble

The ruble is the official monetary unit in the Russian Federation. In addition, at the time the same name was 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 a capital letter "P" and one horizontal line that crosses it. An interesting fact is that in the 17th century the currency symbol ruble 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 in the XIII century.