I recently realized that my understanding of currency symbols from different countries is a bit mixed up—especially how to type the US dollar symbol and how to input the euro symbol, along with a few related questions. So I just put together a note, and I found that it’s actually not that complicated.

First, let’s talk about the most practical part—how to type the US dollar symbol. On Windows, it’s Shift+4; on Mac, it’s also Shift+4. It’s super simple. For the euro symbol €, on Windows use Alt+E, and on Mac it’s Shift+Option+2. The British pound £ is even easier to remember: on Windows it’s Alt+L, and on Mac it’s Option+3. For the Japanese yen ¥, on Mac use Option+Y.

Another thing that’s easy to mix up is that the $ symbol is used in more than 30 countries, not just the US. So sometimes you’ll see it written like US$, NT$ (New Taiwan dollars), C$ (Canadian dollars), HK$ (Hong Kong dollars) to tell them apart. The ¥ symbol is also used for different currencies: Japan uses it for the yen, and China uses it for the renminbi. To differentiate, you write CNY¥ or JPY¥.

More interestingly, the ฿ symbol: in the foreign exchange market, it represents the Thai baht, but in cryptocurrency it becomes the ticker symbol for Bitcoin. Every country’s currency symbol has its own story behind it—remembering them like this actually makes it easier. If you often deal with foreign exchange or international transactions, getting familiar with these symbols can definitely speed up your recognition.