this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 196 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Dollar sign placement matters

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 week ago (3 children)

In Greece we put the currency symbol like in the image, after the numbers. But I think in many other countries they put it before the numbersπŸ€”

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In the US, $ comes before a number, and Β’ comes after. It helps differentiate them at a glance. $1.50 or 75Β’ You only use one symbol at a time.

Not all that many uses for the Β’ left these days, I suppose.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Β’

just saving for a future copy and paste

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Just use unexpected keyboard

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It's a standard for the Euro-zone.

It is supposed to be read XXXX,XX€, because what is being stated is the amount and then the currency.

I insisted in writing it in the opposite way and it was an accountant that corrected me.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The actual standard for English language (as well as Irish, Maltese and Dutch) is € first: https://style-guide.europa.eu/en/content/-/isg/topic?identifier=7.3.3-rules-for-expressing-monetary-units

For all other languages it's value first.

Luckily no one remembered to put it in the middle yet, which I assume is only because 50€10 looks cursed.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Luckily no one remembered to put it in the middle yet, which I assume is only because 50€10 looks cursed.

Exceptionally, the symbol for the Cape Verdean escudo (like the Portuguese escudo, to which it was formerly pegged) is placed in the decimal separator position, as in 2$50.

From Wikipedia

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Those lucky bastards are the only ones that get to use this handy feature in Dream Berd

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

sweden does something similarly weird. we don't have a currency symbol (unless you count "kr") so the standard way to write a price is "20:-", which used to be "20kr, 0ΓΆre", with the colon as the decimal separator and the line added so you couldn't write in another value, but then we switched decimal separator for currency to "," and ":-" just became the symbol for "money".

you even occasionally see abominations like "19,90:-"...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's interesting that you have :- as the symbol for money. Where I'm from :- is the symbol for forgetting to give your ASCII smiley a mouth. :-)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

We also sometimes use ,- effectively as a symbol for money. I assume it has same origin, would be used as 19,90 ,- too.

Thouhg I think you'd only use it on handwritten stuff, didn't see it in the wild for a long time now that I think about it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm going to risk it is tied to the previous standard and has faced resistance to fade.

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[–] MightyCuriosity 2 points 1 week ago

I think the French write 1€50 iirc. At least I think I've seen it at their gas stations? Does indeed look bad.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

In spoken language that makes sense to me, but in written materials I find it more helpful to know the unit in which I should be framing the numeric value I'm about to read first. Dunno why - maybe it's just what I'm used to, and I could adapt relatively easily if I was forced to.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

But is that true for other units, too? Like miles or kilometers or kilograms or whatever you use

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, actually. I frequently read a number, then the unit, then re-read the number. Or I read the unit, then the number, skipping around a bit.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

I personally don't have it that bad but I've similar thoughts about written units. I must admit I do prefer everything working the same and as such think the dollar sign in front is extremely cursed.

I also hate how few people use the ISO 8601 date standard which is super intuitive and machine friendly. And no matter what there is no excuse for the mm.dd.yyyy format.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

Yeah, that's actually a very good point. Guess I could probably adapt more easily than I was imagining.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

There was an effort to approach spoken and writen speech.

Before the introduction of the Euro in my country we would speak and write XXXX$XX, meaning X amount, then declare the currency, followed by X of cents.

Nowadays we just state X,X€. So X amount, with X amount of cents, then state the currency.

Speech followed writing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

We still say "15 Euro 20" while writing "15,20€" and neither has ever changed, I think. My childhood memories of DM aren't that sharp

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So, a couple of unlikely things will have to happen for this, but if 1) Britain ever returns to the EU and 2) as a joining condition is forced to adopt the Euro, I can all but guarantee that most people will put the Euro symbol in front where the pound sign used to be, even if expressly told not to. Even those in favour of being in the EU.

Retailers would do whatever they felt like on labels and shelves unless it was enshrined law.

And the penchant for using imperial weights and measures would continue unabated across the lands.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

It's standard. Same goes for roubles.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago

Excellent work.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 week ago (3 children)

$100$

Use them like quotes to cover all your bases.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

00100100100010100010100101010101011010111010010101

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Like spanish question marks, it's good that you put the first $ upside down.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Β‘Exactamente!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

LaTeX: ok, I'll print out 100 in math mode. No problem

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (5 children)

By putting the dollar sign first on checks it prevents someone from changing 100$ into 1100$

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

You could do the same if the dollar sign is on the other side though.

$100

$1000

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

But that's why you put the "and no cents ~~~~~~~~" at the end

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's the text portion, not the numeric portion.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh, I still do the $100.Β°/oo~~~~ in the numeric section too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I see. I assumed you meant the words because you put the words in your comment.

Seems like a good idea to do both, as you say.

I don't really write a lot of checks any more.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

You could do a similar thing for the other style:

100$

Vs

-------- 100$

I would write it $100, but only because it's convention, either method has the same issue and solutions.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

100.00$ vs $100.00 I guess? Though I suppose you could turn the period into a comma.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

aren't they supposed to look at the fully written out

"One hundred dollars 0/100" part of the check. Either way someone can slip in a 1 or a zero somewhere in the paper.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

The they in your sentence, at one point in time, referred to me and my three buddies who worked for Commerce Bank back in the oughts. They left four kids, one of them 18 and the rest 17, in charge of a bank sometimes. I may be personally responsible for commerce bank ceasing to exist.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

I had to write a check a few months ago, it was like divining an ancient language.

It cleared through, so I guess I got it right.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Pretty sure the printing out of the amount with letters prevents that.

One hundred dollars -------xx/00

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Just like commas.

Let's eat out Grandma!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Proper use of grouping separators (commas in some locales, dots/periods/full-stops in others, although there are some standards that specify spaces instead - which I personally find problematic) might've helped clear up the orientation issue as well.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Where is ISO when we need it..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

l10n is a bitch. The exceptions are almost as bad as timezones...

The swiss use ' as a separator. So they would write 900'000 which upside down would look like 000,006 so the confusion could continue