# Which is correct? €75 or 75 EUR? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792 "2007-06-13T00:33:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vice)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/1 "2007-06-13T00:33:17Z")
I am slightly ashamed that I don’t know the answer to this and I’m too embarrassed to ask my professors. When writing an academic paper, it is better to use the symbol to denote the currency, or the abbreviation? Or are both acceptable? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/2 "2007-06-13T00:36:36Z")
Use the symbol. The three-letter abbreviations are mostly used by financial institutions, at least where the euro is concerned. The practice in Europe is to use the symbol, although different countries have different conventions about where to place it: €3.50 or 3.50€ or even 3€50 are all seen. (Although they use a comma, not a point, for the decimal.) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/3 "2007-06-13T06:01:14Z")
It’s the same as the difference between $75 and 75 USD. Which to use depends on the context (although € has the advantage that it only refers to one currency unlike the many different dollars out there). I can’t imagine use of the symbol being deemed incorrect in an academic paper - it’s unambiguous and succinct. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/4 "2007-06-13T06:38:01Z")
I subscribe to a monthly railway magazine which always carries several reports on the railway systems in the Euro Zone. For some strange reason the publishers seem never to have heard of the Euro symbol. So you get sentences such as :- “Bombardier is to supply 53 double-deck coaches to DB for use on Dresden’s suburban network in a Euro 72million contract” This just looks wrong and untidy. I wonder why they don’t use the € symbol ? ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/5 "2007-06-13T07:05:26Z")
The euro symbol isn’t included in many fonts, so it can be safer to write EUR. ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/6 "2007-06-13T09:16:34Z")
Maybe they have old keyboards without the symbol on! ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/7 "2007-06-13T10:11:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by \* **essell** : > Maybe they have old keyboards without the symbol on! Like mine - I normally write out Euro or MEuro (for a million euros) 'cause I can’t rember the keystrokes to insert the symbol. European Union documents have tended to use the form “EUR 750 million” or similar but I have noticed some more recent publications using the symbol. My conclusion would be that either would be correct but beware of old fonts that do not print correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/8 "2007-06-13T10:15:40Z")
The _Times_ always uses the symbol in its news articles. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/9 "2007-06-13T11:31:30Z")
Since you’ve got the symbol available, use it. If it’s not available, it can be “7 EUR”, “EUR 7” or “7 euro”. Some languages/countries prefer the form where the whole name is used; some seem to go more for the abbreviation (all my Spanish financial forms use the symbol or the whole word, the abbreviation is not a legal version). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/10 "2007-06-13T14:52:56Z")
Generally speaking, the Associated Press stylebook prefers foreign currencies to be written out: 15 pounds sterling, 32 euros, 90.99 Mexican pesos, 15 million Indian rupees, etc. I find this a better standard than expecting your readers to know various symbols and abbreviations. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/11 "2007-06-13T16:06:34Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] Generally speaking, the Associated Press stylebook prefers foreign currencies to be written out: 15 pounds sterling, 32 euros, 90.99 Mexican pesos, 15 million Indian rupees, etc. I find this a better standard than expecting your readers to know various symbols and abbreviations. [/QUOTE] In this case, I’d say the AP stylebook makes the choice against symbols not totally for reader comprehension, but at least as much to make sure that the text isn’t mangled too much by strange characters as it moves through different newswire/typesetting/whatever systems. Less of a consideration for an academic paper today (though not a completely trivial one). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/12 "2007-06-13T16:20:05Z")
You’re probably right about that, but regardless of its origin, it seems to me to be the simplest and most easily understood form and shouldn’t be inappropriate for any circumstance, provided there isn’t already a different style mandate in effect. ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/13 "2007-06-13T16:56:06Z")
[QUOTE=Vice] Which is correct? €75 or 75 EUR? [/QUOTE] $100. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/14 "2007-06-13T18:37:31Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] I find this a better standard than expecting your readers to know various symbols and abbreviations. [/QUOTE] Aye. EUR is easy to figure out, but do most people know CAD? Or MXN? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/15 "2007-06-13T18:44:09Z")
[QUOTE=SmackFu] Aye. EUR is easy to figure out, but do most people know CAD? Or MXN? [/QUOTE] It depends on the audience. If you’re working for an international business paper, I would think those abbreviations should be fine. For a general audience paper, no. Anyhow, CAD seems to obviously be Canadian Dollar. MXN, though, you’ve stumped me on. I’d guess peso, although I don’t know where the N would come from. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/16 "2007-06-13T18:49:16Z")
For a list of the three-letter currency codes look [here](http://www.xe.com/ict/) and go to the drop-down list at the left of the page. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/17 "2007-06-13T19:15:21Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] It depends on the audience. If you’re working for an international business paper, I would think those abbreviations should be fine. For a general audience paper, no. Anyhow, CAD seems to obviously be Canadian Dollar. MXN, though, you’ve stumped me on. I’d guess peso, although I don’t know where the N would come from. [/QUOTE] CAD is Canadian dollar, yes. MXN is (new) Mexican peso. I think they knocked a few zeroes off it some years back, and changed the currency symbol. Incidentally, you don’t capitalise “euro” in running text! The sentence “the company’s stock went to 74 Euros a share” is wrong! I see people doing this all the time with the full names of measurement units as well: “75 Watts”. Wrong! The only unit that sort of gets a capital is “degrees Celsius” (and “degrees Fahrenheit” for US types). ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/18 "2007-06-13T19:51:10Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] The only unit that sort of gets a capital is “degrees Celsius” (and “degrees Fahrenheit” for US types). [/QUOTE] Why make an exception for these? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/19 "2007-06-13T19:56:59Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Why make an exception for these? [/QUOTE] I don’t see it as an exception. “Degrees” is the units and “Celsius” is a proper-name modifier. It works the same way as “U.S. dollar” and “Mexican peso.” ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792/20 "2007-06-13T20:05:21Z")
Well, the [Times](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/specials/style_guide/article986720.ece) doesn’t go for capitals (listed under ‘celsius’). [QUOTE=acsenray] I don’t see it as an exception. “Degrees” is the units and “Celsius” is a proper-name modifier. It works the same way as “U.S. dollar” and “Mexican peso.” [/QUOTE] Well, those examples are like that because ‘US’ and ‘Mexican’ have capitals. Otherwise, waht about ‘nautical miles’? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-75-or-75-eur/407792.md?page=2)