The
Euro sign (€) is the
currency signA currency sign is a graphic symbol often used as a shorthand for a currency's name. Internationally, ISO 4217 codes are used instead of currency signs, though currency signs may be in common use in their respective countries...
used for the
euroThe euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...
, the official currency of the
EurozoneThe eurozone is an economic and monetary union of 16 European Union member states which have adopted the euro currency as their sole legal tender. It currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal,...
in the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
(EU). The design was presented to the public by the
European CommissionThe European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.The Commission operates in the method of cabinet government, with 27...
on 12 December 1996. The international three-letter code (according to
ISOThe International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international-standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on 23 February 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary industrial and commercial...
standard
ISO 4217ISO 4217 is the international standard describing three-letter codes to define the names of currencies established by the International Organization for Standardization...
) for the euro is
EUR.
The euro currency sign was designed to be similar in appearance to the old sign for the
European currency unitThe European Currency Unit was a basket of the currencies of the European Community member states, used as the unit of account of the European Community before being replaced by the euro on January 1, 1999, at parity. The ECU itself replaced the European Unit of Account, also at parity, on March...
, ₠. After a public survey had narrowed the original ten proposals down to two, it was up to the
European CommissionThe European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.The Commission operates in the method of cabinet government, with 27...
to choose the final design.
The
Euro sign (€) is the
currency signA currency sign is a graphic symbol often used as a shorthand for a currency's name. Internationally, ISO 4217 codes are used instead of currency signs, though currency signs may be in common use in their respective countries...
used for the
euroThe euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...
, the official currency of the
EurozoneThe eurozone is an economic and monetary union of 16 European Union member states which have adopted the euro currency as their sole legal tender. It currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal,...
in the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
(EU). The design was presented to the public by the
European CommissionThe European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.The Commission operates in the method of cabinet government, with 27...
on 12 December 1996. The international three-letter code (according to
ISOThe International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international-standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on 23 February 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary industrial and commercial...
standard
ISO 4217ISO 4217 is the international standard describing three-letter codes to define the names of currencies established by the International Organization for Standardization...
) for the euro is
EUR.
Design
The euro currency sign was designed to be similar in appearance to the old sign for the
European currency unitThe European Currency Unit was a basket of the currencies of the European Community member states, used as the unit of account of the European Community before being replaced by the euro on January 1, 1999, at parity. The ECU itself replaced the European Unit of Account, also at parity, on March...
, ₠. After a public survey had narrowed the original ten proposals down to two, it was up to the
European CommissionThe European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.The Commission operates in the method of cabinet government, with 27...
to choose the final design. The eventual winner was a design created by a team of four experts whose identities have not been revealed.
The official story of the design history of the euro sign is disputed by
Arthur EisenmengerArthur Eisenmenger is a former chief graphic designer for the European Community.Amongst his artistic creations are implementation of the European flag, the CE mark, and possibly the euro sign ....
, a former chief graphic designer for the
European Economic CommunityThe European Economic Community was an international organisation that existed between 1958 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.It was...
, who claims he had the idea prior to the European Commission.
The European Commission specified a euro logo with exact proportions and colours (PMS Yellow foreground, PMS Reflex Blue background ), for use in public-relations material related to the euro introduction. While the Commission intended the logo to be a prescribed
glyphA glyph is an element of writing. It is a slightly vague term, but a more precise definition might be an individual mark on paper or another written medium which contributes to the meaning of what is written there...
shape, font designers made it clear that they intended to design their own variants instead.
Use on computers
Generating the euro sign using a computer depends on the
operating systemAn operating system is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating...
and national conventions. Some mobile phone companies issued an interim software update for their special
SMSShort Message Service or Silent Messaging Service is a communication service standardized in the GSM mobile communication system, using standardized communications protocols allowing the interchange of short text messages between mobile telephone devices...
character set, replacing the less-frequent Japanese yen sign with the euro sign. Later mobile phones have both currency signs.
The euro is represented in the
UnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
character set with the character name EURO SIGN and the code position U+20AC (decimal 8364) as well as in updated versions of the traditional Latin character set encodings. In
HTMLHTML, which stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. It provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists etc as well as for links, quotes, and other items. It allows images...
, the
€ entity can also be used. The HTML entity was only introduced with HTML 4.0, shortly after the introduction of the euro, and many browsers were unable to render it. The alternative was to use
€ instead, with 128 (80
hexadecimalIn mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen.Its primary use is as a...
) being the code position of the euro sign in most Windows 125x encodings.
An implicit character encoding, along with the fact that the code position of the euro sign is different in common encoding schemes, led to many problems displaying the euro sign in computer applications. While displaying the euro sign is no problem as long as only one system is used (provided an up-to-date
fontIn typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist...
with the proper
glyphA glyph is an element of writing. It is a slightly vague term, but a more precise definition might be an individual mark on paper or another written medium which contributes to the meaning of what is written there...
is available), mixed setups often produced errors. One example is a
Content management systemA content management system such as a document management system is a computer application used to manage work flow needed to collaboratively create, edit, review, index, search, publish and archive various kinds of digital media and electronic text.CMSs are frequently used for storing,...
where articles are stored in a database using a different character set than the editor's computer. Another is
legacy softwareA legacy system is an old method, technology, computer system, or application program that continues to be used, typically because it still functions for the users' needs, even though newer technology or more efficient methods of performing a task are now available...
which could only handle older encodings such as
ISO 8859-1ISO/IEC 8859-1:1998, Information technology 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets Part 1: Latin alphabet No. 1, is part of the ISO/IEC 8859 series of ASCII-based standard character encodings, first edition published in 1987. It is informally referred to as Latin-1...
that contained no euro sign at all. In such situations, character set conversions had to be made, often introducing conversion errors such as a question mark (?) being displayed instead of a euro sign.
Care has been taken to avoid replacing an existing obsolete currency sign with the euro sign. That could create different currency signs for sender and receiver in e-mails or web sites, with confusions about business agreements as a result.
The
Compose keyOn some computer systems, a compose key is a key which is designated to signal the software to interpret the next keystrokes as a combination in order to produce a character not found on the keyboard....
sequence for the euro sign is
=E. On many European
keyboard layoutA keyboard layout is any specific mechanical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key–meaning associations of a computer, typewriter, or other typographic keyboard....
s, the symbol can be entered as
AltGrAltGr is a modifier key on PC keyboards used to type many characters, primarily ones that are unusual for the locale of the keyboard layout, such as currency symbols and accented letters...
+ E, on others as AltGr + 4 or AltGr + 5, according to official recommendations. On the MacOS operating system, a variety of key combinations are used depending on the
keyboard layoutA keyboard layout is any specific mechanical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key–meaning associations of a computer, typewriter, or other typographic keyboard....
(for example,
optionThe Option key is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. For desktop keyboards, there are usually two, while a laptop may have only one to make room for the arrow keys...
-2 in British layout, option-
shiftThe shift key is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row...
-2 in United States layout).
Usage
Placement of the sign also varies. Partly since there are no official standards on placement, countries have generated varying conventions or sustained those of their former currencies. For example, in
IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
and the Netherlands where previous currency signs (£ and
ƒThe florin sign is a symbol that is used for the currencies named florin, also called a gulden or guilder. The symbol "ƒ" is the lowercase version of of the Latin alphabet.It is used in the following current and obsolete currencies:...
, respectively) were placed before the figure, the euro sign is universally placed in the same position. In many other countries, including
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
and
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, an amount such as €3.50 is often written as 3,50 € or 3€50 instead, largely in accordance with conventions for previous currencies.
In English-language use, like the
dollar signThe dollar sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various dollar and peso units of currency around the world.-Origin:The sign is attested in business correspondence between the British, Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans in the 1770s, as referring to the Spanish-Mexican peso, known as...
($) and the
pound signThe pound sign is the symbol for the pound sterling—the currency of the United Kingdom . The same symbol is used for currencies of the same name in some other countries and territories; there are other countries whose currency is called "the pound", but that do not use the £ symbol.The symbol...
(£), the euro sign is generally placed before the figure, as used by publications such as the
Financial TimesThe Financial Times is a British international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and is printed at 22 sites...
and
The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
.
No official recommendation is made with regard to the use of a cent sign, and usage differs between and within member states. Sums are often expressed as decimals of the euro (for example €0.05 or €–.05 rather than 5c). The most common abbreviation is "c", but the cent sign "¢" also appears. Other abbreviations include "ct" (particularly in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
), "cent." in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, "snt" (
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
) and Λ (the capital letter
lambdaLambda is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 30. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Lamed . Letters that arose from Lambda include the Roman L and the Cyrillic letter El . The ancient Grammarians and dramatists attest to a pronunciation...
for λεπτό, "lepto", in
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
).
Further reading