Short Stuff: Currency Symbols

In today's shorty, Josh and Chuck go over the stories behind some of the world's currency symbols. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Speaker 01

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• 1:10Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too, sitting in for Dave. So this is Short Stuff. And Chuck, we've talked so much about currency over the years, but we've never talked about this, and I think it's high time. This is a good pick for you.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Thank you. We're talking about currency symbols and what they mean and where they came from. And we'll start with the dollar. We're looking at you, United States, and Canada, and Namibia, and New Zealand, and 17 other countries that use the dollar. It comes from the Spanish peso, apparently, which has been around since the 15th century. The peso de ocho are pieces of eight.

• 1:44Josh Clark?

  Did not know that.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  And the eventual United States would model their dollar after the peso.

• 1:51Josh Clark?

  Did not know that either. And in fact, Chuck, they think that the dollar sign came from people abbreviating the word peso. They would say PS. And somebody eventually was like, you know what? I could really save some space if I wrote the S over the P. Someone else came along and said, you know what? We could save even more space if we got rid of the round part of the P. And someone else said, oh, my God, you guys just created a dollar sign.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  That's right. That first appeared in print as the dollar sign after 1800. And there are three iterations. I guess the first, PS was the first one. The single stroke through the S was the second one. And then, as all elementary school children know and love, the double vertical lines through the S is yet another version.

• 2:41Josh Clark?

  I've always, I've never really thought it out loud, but I, I've always thought of that as meaning like, now you're talking real money. So you have to put two.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 2:49Josh Clark?

  Two vertical lines through it, yeah.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Oh, that's funny.

• 2:52Josh Clark?

  But yes, so that you could call the Randian version. Because Ayn Rand took a crack at it and just made up this idea that the two lines are actually a S over a U, and someone got rid of the loopy bottom of the U, and that U and S stood for United States. And that's where the double-line dollar sign came from. And everybody's like, good try, Ayn Rand. Those two vertical lines going through some sort of symbol is actually pretty common among currencies.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. And PS, you just made that up.

• 3:27Josh Clark?

  Exactly. PS, I love you.

• 3:31Speaker 01

  PS, I love you. So like I said, there are 20 countries that use the dollar sign. And how you designate it is with the abbreviation, or I guess the initials for the country before, like US dollar, CA for Canadian dollar, et cetera.

• 3:46Josh Clark?

  Yeah. I think that's such a great burn that Canada adopted the dollar and abandoned the pound. Way to go, Canada.

• 3:54Speaker 01

  Should we move on to the euro?

• 3:55Josh Clark?

  Yes, because that's a very, very new currency, one of the newest. It was, the, the euro wasn't around until the 21st century, in 2002.

• 4:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, the, the EU had been around since 1992, when 12 European countries got together to form that body the following year.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  And, you know, creating a single currency was one of the things behind it.

• 4:23Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it was a big deal. The symbol itself is, it's a curvy E, and then it has two horizontal lines going through it. And that's based on the Greek letter Epsilon, or E essentially, which is E in English. E is the first letter in Europe. You're starting to get this now.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 4:43Josh Clark?

  The two lines represent stability. And then, very mysteriously, the euro designer has never been revealed by the EU. I suspect it's because it's an American, and they hadn't looked into the person's background yet when they hired him. And I also suspect that that American is Eddie Money, which is why they hired him in the first place, but they didn't realize he was American.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  That's funny. He had two tickets to paradise and two strokes through a E.

• 5:15Josh Clark?

  Yeah. He strokes it to the east, strokes it to the west.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  Like I said, that was launched with, in 2002, and originally, there were seven bank notes and eight coins. And the bank notes are identical everywhere, but I did not know this because I haven't, I have been there since the euro, actually, but the, or have I? Yes, I have. The coins have a common design on one side, and each country has their own design on the flip side.

• 5:42Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think that's sweet.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Pretty cool.

• 5:45Josh Clark?

  It's like, don't forget about your heritage. The UK was part of the EU for a long time. It was one of the founding members in 1992, and in 2020, it left. I didn't know that, did you?

• 5:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, they, they Brexit.

• 6:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I know, I'm just kidding. They, they kept the pound the entire time, though. They're like, yeah, we helped found the EU, but we're not adopting the euro. And actually, I agree with this, for good reason. The pound sterling is the oldest living continuous currency in the world, and brother, it is old.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're like, we're not going to flush that down the toilet for your fancy new money.

• 6:23Josh Clark?

  Why would you?

• 6:24Speaker 01

  It's super old. I think 928 CE, is that right?

• 6:30Josh Clark?

  Yep.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  Well, that's when it was officially adopted by King Athelstan.

• 6:35Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  But they apparently had been in circulation even before that and accepted, like, the pound sterling, which I think originally was like one pound of silver. Equals whatever this note is worth.

• 6:48Josh Clark?

  I don't know where you got this one, but I love this sentence, that no one's sure where the term pound sterling originated, but experts agree it has some connection to weight and silver. Yeah? Do you think so?

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Kind of answered it.

• 7:01Josh Clark?

  You know what? I could have said that too, and I'm not even a currency expert.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, and of course, the pound symbol, I guess it looks sort of like if an F and an L had a baby.

• 7:14Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah, good one. A lowercase f and an uppercase L. Yeah, for sure.

• 7:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:18Josh Clark?

  It's really hard to do by hand, I've found.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Oh, I have never tried to write that.

• 7:25Josh Clark?

  But the L is for libra, which is Latin for scales or balances, because again, this has to do with weighing in silver.

• 7:34Josh Clark?

  And the slash through it is a mystery, from what I can tell.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't think, I don't think anyone knows.

• 7:43Josh Clark?

  No, which is good enough for me. I mean, keep it mysterious a little bit, pound sterling.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, and, you know, no other nation uses the pound sterling. But there are some former British colonies who have a pound that's just not the pound sterling, like you can have a Nigerian pound.

• 8:00Josh Clark?

  Right. Or an Egyptian pound.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it's the same symbol, but they have, again, the designation with the letter of the country.

• 8:06Josh Clark?

  Okay. I say that we take a break and come back and talk about some other currencies around the world and their symbols.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Let's do it.

• 8:24Josh Clark?

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• 9:24Speaker 03

  First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?

• 9:27Josh Clark?

  Hey, this is Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know.

• 9:30Speaker 01

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• 10:17Josh Clark?

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• 10:31Josh Clark?

  Okay Chuck, I feel like a total schmo because I forgot to ask Yumi about this very surprising statement in this article, that the Japanese yen is pronounced "en" in Japanese. I have never heard that before. I couldn't find it anywhere else. And I meant to ask Yumi and I failed to. So I'm sorry about that.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, it seems dubious to me, but because this came from howstuffworks.com by the way. And it says that they, they found that people from other countries pronounced it as yen. And that's why they put the Y in there. But the only reason I say that is because there's a Y in there.

• 11:19Josh Clark?

  It's just wrong.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  So I can't figure it out?

• 11:22Josh Clark?

  No, I think there's nothing to figure out. And I'm glad I didn't ask Yumi because I think she would have looked at me like I was an idiot.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Well, at any rate, the symbol for the yen is a capital Y, again with two horizontal lines running through it, through the stem, that is. And sometimes a single horizontal line, just like the dollar and some others. And it's the same thing as the Chinese symbol for its, how would you pronounce that?

• 11:49Josh Clark?

  Yuan.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  The yuan? Okay, that's what I thought.

• 11:52Josh Clark?

  Yep. But they have a different currency system, the renminbi. And the yuan is actually like a denomination of it, but everybody, including the Chinese, call it the yuan. But because they use the same symbol, there's the CN and then the Y symbol for the Chinese yuan, and the JPY symbol for the Japanese yen. And this is true. If you go to Japan today, you better bring a lot of cash because there are a lot of independent, like, businesses, restaurants, that kind of thing, especially further you get out of a city, that will be like cash only, buddy. And we don't have an ATM.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  I love that. I miss cash. What does Japanese cash look like? Is it cool? Do you remember?

• 12:37Josh Clark?

  I don't remember. No.

• 12:40Speaker 01

  All right.

• 12:40Josh Clark?

  I'm sorry. It's been, God, I think the last time I was there was 2013. So, you know, give me a break.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I still have some Canadian cash in my purse, by the way.

• 12:53Josh Clark?

  Yeah?

• 12:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. And every time I'm at the airport, I forget to go by the old Cambio. So maybe I'll just wait till I'm back in Canada and I'll spend that, invest in, in my friends from the north.

• 13:02Josh Clark?

  Two things Chuck. I think that your bank, that you have like a regular account with, will convert that for you.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  I wondered about that.

• 13:10Josh Clark?

  And, well, three things. Number two, if you do it at the airport, you're going to get completely ripped off. I don't think your bank will totally rip you off. Number three, I'm so glad you brought that up because Canada just announced that their new $5 bill has Terry Fox on it.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  Oh, no way.

• 13:28Josh Clark?

  It's awesome looking, too.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  Oh, well, I'm definitely not getting rid of this cash. I'll just go trade it in for Terry Fox fibers.

• 13:34Josh Clark?

  There you go.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  Spend some of those on some maple syrup and Montreal bagels. And then pocket one just to keep forever.

• 13:43Josh Clark?

  Very nice. And then drink a Molson Golden and then promptly vomit.

• 13:48Speaker 01

  All right. You want to finish up with the rupee?

• 13:51Josh Clark?

  Yes. It also is a very, very old currency, but it hasn't been in continuous use like the pound has. But it dates back to about 2,600 years ago, which makes it even more strange that it didn't have its own symbol, like a dollar sign, until 2010, when they held the design contest. And this designer was named Professor D. Udaya Kumar, who was a professor in design, produced the winning symbol for the rupee.

• 14:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, prior to that, it had always just been RS or RE. It was denoted by letters. But how would you describe, you know, I encourage people, if it's safe to do so, to look up the symbol for the rupee. But how would you describe this?

• 14:31Josh Clark?

  I don't think it's safe. Like, I don't think you're going to get malware or anything.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  No, I mean, if you're driving in a car or something, come on.

• 14:37Josh Clark?

  Okay, make an R, capital R. Lop the top part off. So it's just flat.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 14:46Josh Clark?

  And then lop the front bubble part off, and then get rid of the back stem.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 14:53Josh Clark?

  Now add another line. So there's two lines. And then the, the, the bottom coming out of the R. That's essentially it. I, I'm going to try five or six different ways if you'll bear with me.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  No, no. So apparently it has elements from a script used to write a lot of Indian languages, Debonagara, and then also Roman and Latin scripts. And the Debonagara is Ra for rupia, and the Roman letter R for the English word rupee. And those parallel lines represent the tri-colored flag of India, as well as the equal symbol.

• 15:32Josh Clark?

  Booyah. You can also find rupees in Indonesia, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, among others. But they don't use that R symbol, that 2010 R rupee symbol.

• 15:44Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 15:45Josh Clark?

  Chuck, I feel like that's about it. We covered literally every single currency in the entire world. So I think short stuff is that.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  It's out.