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Currency Symbols $ € £ ¥ ₿ — How to Type Every Currency Sign

You'd think typing a dollar sign would prepare you for typing any currency symbol. Nope. The $ is right there on your keyboard, easy as Shift+4. But what about the euro € ? The British pound £ ? The Indian rupee ₹ ? Suddenly you're Googling "how to type euro sign on windows" at 11 PM because you need to finish a report.

Been there. Multiple times. So here's the definitive guide to every currency symbol you might need, plus how to actually type them without losing your mind.

Major Currency Symbols — Quick Reference

Here are the most commonly used currency symbols worldwide. Copy any of them directly:

That's a lot of symbols. And here's the wild part: many countries that use their own currency don't even have a unique symbol. They just use their ISO currency code (like CHF for Swiss Franc or SEK for Swedish Krona). Only about 30 currencies have dedicated Unicode symbols.

How to Type the Most Common Currency Symbols

Dollar Sign ($)

Keyboard: Shift + 4 (on US/UK keyboards). This one you probably know. But did you know the $ is used by over 20 countries? The US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, Singapore Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar — they all use the same symbol. Context tells you which one.

Euro Sign (€)

This is the one everyone struggles with.

The euro sign was designed in 1997 by the European Commission. It's based on the Greek letter epsilon (ε) with two horizontal lines to represent stability. Whether the euro has actually been stable is... a different conversation.

British Pound (£)

The £ comes from the Latin word "libra" (meaning pound in weight). The L got a horizontal line through it and eventually became £. The same origin gives us "lb" as the abbreviation for pounds of weight. English is weird.

Japanese Yen / Chinese Yuan (¥)

Yes, Japan and China use the same symbol. In practice, you can tell them apart by context (and the fact that 1 yuan ≈ 20 yen, so the numbers look very different). China sometimes uses 元 or 圆 instead of ¥ in domestic contexts.

Indian Rupee (₹)

The ₹ symbol is relatively new — it was adopted in 2010 after a nationwide design competition. D. Udaya Kumar, an IIT postgrad, won with a design based on the Devanagari letter "र" combined with the Latin "R" and two horizontal lines. Before 2010, India used "Rs" or "₨."

Bitcoin (₿)

The ₿ symbol was added to Unicode 10.0. It's a B with two vertical lines, mimicking the style of $ and other currency symbols. Before it was official, people used various makeshift versions — Ƀ, ฿, and even just BTC. Honestly, most people still write BTC.

Currency Symbols Placement — Before or After the Number?

This is one of those things that varies by country and drives designers crazy:

There's no universal rule. When in doubt, follow the convention of whatever country's currency you're writing about. If you're writing for an international audience, putting the symbol before the number is generally understood everywhere.

Old, Obscure, and Interesting Currency Symbols

A few fun ones for the curious:

The generic currency sign ¤ is my favorite obscure symbol. It looks like a sun or a circle with four short lines pointing outward. It was designed specifically to be a "fill in the blank" for whatever currency applies. You'll sometimes see it on keyboards in place of a specific currency symbol.

Currency Symbols in Code and Web Development

If you're building websites or apps that handle multiple currencies:

Pro tip: the JavaScript Intl.NumberFormat API handles currency formatting beautifully. Instead of manually placing symbols, let the browser do it:

new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US', { 
  style: 'currency', 
  currency: 'USD' 
}).format(1234.56)
// → "$1,234.56"

new Intl.NumberFormat('de-DE', { 
  style: 'currency', 
  currency: 'EUR' 
}).format(1234.56)
// → "1.234,56 €"

Quick Copy Block — All Currency Symbols

$ € £ ¥ ₹ ₩ ₿ ¢ ₽ ₺ ₴ ₱ ₦ ₫ ฿ ₡ ₵ ₸ ₮ ₲ ₪ ₼ ₾ ¤ ₠ ₳ ₥

Final Thoughts

Currency symbols are one of those things you don't think about until you need one that isn't on your keyboard. Now you've got every symbol, every shortcut, and all the quirky history behind them. Bookmark this page — I promise you'll come back to it the next time you need to type a yen sign at midnight.

Want more symbols? Check out our other guides on music note symbols, cool text symbols, and emoji keyboard shortcuts. Or explore our full symbol collections for arrows, stars, hearts, and more.