# Euro usage in English?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-usage-in-english/156556>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 21, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-usage-in-english/156556 "2003-02-21T16:46:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-usage-in-english/156556/21 "2003-02-22T20:02:41Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by sailor \*  
> \*\*It does not work in ascii (non-HTML) email for instance. So most of the time I find it easier to just spell the word out. \*\*

Because of the email problem, the custom in Ireland is tending towards the use of “EUR” in emails - “e.g. my new phone cost me EUR170.23”.

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-usage-in-english/156556/22 "2003-02-24T11:37:36Z")

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Writing EUR170.23 isn’t really much different thant writing DM45.46, right? Not that anyone is likely to write DMxxxx anything much these days.

Common practice when there’s the possibility of confusion is to write CDN$25, US$25, or MX$25 in these parts. But that’s not related to Unicode so much as the fact we all use dollar signs for our currencies.

One day Unicode will be so prevelant that it won’t matter.

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-usage-in-english/156556/23 "2003-02-24T11:57:59Z")

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To make matters more confusing, in Portugal (and other countries that used to do it; I think France too), the former currency sign came _after_ the amount - and so does the euro sign. Thus the Irish €170.23 would become 170.23€ in those countries, or even 170 € 23 c.

> [@](#):
>
> **One day Unicode will be so prevelant that it won’t matter.**

I’ll drink to that.

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-usage-in-english/156556/24 "2003-02-24T12:51:12Z")

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In fact, most financial information does not use any signs at all and uses three letter abbreviations instead: USD, GBP, EUR, etc. It is the best way to avoid the sign problem and avoid confusion.  
[www.oanda.com](http://www.oanda.com)

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