dollar sign placement

Victor aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Mar 3 21:13:54 UTC 2009


Actually, this use is quite common among phishing emails. But there is
also a case to be made that some non-US sources that use dollars as
currency (aside from Canada, at least), may well write the dollar symbol
following the number. In most cases, this is also followed by a unique
identifier for the particular dollar in question. Of course, there is no
reason to do this locally, so this usually appears in international,
particularly economic, literature.

For example, I have seen TWD, $TW and TW$ all used in describing
Taiwanese dollar figures. Same for Singapore and others. In particular,
note that although pound and dollar traditionally precede the number,
other currency symbols often follow the number.

Looking at the Wiki entry for the euro, you get a similar explanation.
++
For example, in Ireland and the Netherlands where previous currency
signs (£ and ƒ, respectively) were placed before the figure, the euro
sign is universally placed in the same position[6]. In many other
countries, including France, Germany and Spain, 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 sign ($) and the pound sign
(£), the euro sign is generally placed before the figure,[7] as used by
publications such as the Financial Times and The Economist[8].
++

So this is more than simply ignorant usage.

VS-)

David K. Barnhart wrote:
> Lately I've noticed that some e-mails contain a "misplacement".
>
> Some folks say 400$ rather than $400.
>
> How long have I been not noticing this?
>
> DKB
>
> Barnhart at highlands.com
>

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