Currency Symbols in Unicode
Explore Unicode currency symbols including Dollar, Euro, Pound, Yen, Rupee, and Bitcoin — their code points, UTF-8 encoding, and the Currency Symbols block.
Detailed Explanation
Currency Symbols in Unicode
Unicode includes currency symbols scattered across several blocks, with a dedicated Currency Symbols block at U+20A0–U+20CF. These characters range from 1 byte (ASCII dollar sign) to 3 bytes in UTF-8.
Common Currency Symbols
| Symbol | Code Point | UTF-8 Bytes | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| $ | U+0024 | 24 | DOLLAR SIGN |
| £ | U+00A3 | C2 A3 | POUND SIGN |
| ¥ | U+00A5 | C2 A5 | YEN SIGN |
| € | U+20AC | E2 82 AC | EURO SIGN |
| ₹ | U+20B9 | E2 82 B9 | INDIAN RUPEE SIGN |
| ₿ | U+20BF | E2 82 BF | BITCOIN SIGN |
| ₩ | U+20A9 | E2 82 A9 | WON SIGN |
| ₱ | U+20B1 | E2 82 B1 | PESO SIGN |
| ₫ | U+20AB | E2 82 AB | DONG SIGN |
| ₽ | U+20BD | E2 82 BD | RUBLE SIGN |
Encoding Sizes
The dollar sign $ is part of Basic Latin (ASCII) and uses just 1 byte in UTF-8. The pound £ and yen ¥ signs are in the Latin-1 Supplement block and use 2 bytes. Most other currency symbols are in the Currency Symbols block (U+20A0–U+20CF) and use 3 bytes.
Dollar Sign Variants
Unicode includes several dollar-related characters:
- U+0024: DOLLAR SIGN ($) — the standard ASCII dollar
- U+FE69: SMALL DOLLAR SIGN — compatibility form
- U+FF04: FULLWIDTH DOLLAR SIGN — for CJK layouts
- U+1F4B2: HEAVY DOLLAR SIGN — emoji style
Yen and Yuan Ambiguity
The code point U+00A5 (YEN SIGN) is used for both the Japanese Yen (¥) and the Chinese Yuan (元). In practice, the FULLWIDTH YEN SIGN (U+FFE5) is used in Japanese text while U+00A5 serves both. Context determines the intended currency.
Using Currency Symbols in Code
When working with currency in software, prefer using ISO 4217 currency codes (USD, EUR, JPY) for data storage and localize the display symbol based on locale settings. The Unicode Inspector helps verify that currency symbols are correctly encoded when transferring data between systems with different character encodings.
Use Case
Use this when debugging currency symbol encoding issues in financial applications, verifying that copy-pasted currency symbols are the correct Unicode characters, or understanding the byte overhead of currency symbols in multilingual database storage.