# International currency formatting... why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-currency-formatting-why/318506 "2005-08-24T23:20:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ljones73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ljones73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ljones73)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-currency-formatting-why/318506/1 "2005-08-24T23:20:58Z")
In the U.S. of A., we format our numbers by using the ‘,’ character as a thousands indicator, and a ‘.’ character for the decimal indicator. So One-thousand, and 1/100th is 1,000.01 Other countries (like say, the Dutch), do the opposite: 1.000,01 Other countries even use other characters. My question (other than why is this considered a valid form of national expression) is which is the first format that is still in modern use today? And could they please conquer the rest of the world, so we could be consistent… Please. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-currency-formatting-why/318506/2 "2005-08-24T23:47:42Z")
If I am elected President of the United States, I promise to carry out a War On Inconsistent Punctuation. Anywhere where commas are used where the Allmighty intended us to use decimals, anywhere that they use those funny upside down question marks, and anywhere that uses semicolons, we will be there to shine the cleansing light of simple, easy to understand, consistent and correct punctuation on them. So, if I’m 21 now, I’ll be old enough to run in… Vote For Raguleader in 2020! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-currency-formatting-why/318506/3 "2005-08-25T13:20:08Z")
BTW it’s not just currency, those conventions are used for _all_ numbers. What’s even weirder is when you hear someone talking about numbers, and you hear “three places after the comma”. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-currency-formatting-why/318506/4 "2005-08-25T13:21:41Z")
Oh, and I must add that there is a similar problem with telling time. Two-o’clock in the afternoon can be rendered variously as 2:00 PM 14:00 1400 14h00 14,00 ---
**Author:** ![Eurograff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-currency-formatting-why/318506/5 "2005-08-25T16:55:10Z")
Well, as usual Wikipedia has an excellent explanation on this subject: [Decimal separator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator) although it doesn’t clearly state which format was first used. This is understandable since renaissance mathematicians often used unique styles in number formatting and standardizations only came later. Apparently currency numbers are also sometimes formatted differently than numbers in other use. In most European countries, though, we have 1 000,00 and not 1.000,00 regardless of use, which IMHO looks much tidier.