| ₽ | |
|---|---|
Ruble sign | |
| In Unicode | U+20BD ₽RUBLE SIGN |
| Currency | |
| Currency | Russian ruble |
| Different from | |
| Different from | U+20B1 ₱PESO SIGN (Philippines); U+2CE8 ⳨COPTIC SYMBOL TAU RO (staurogram) |
 Category | |
Theruble sign,₽, is thecurrency sign used for theRussian ruble, the officialcurrency ofRussia. Its form is aCyrillic letterР with an additional horizontal stroke.[a] The design was approved on 11 December 2013 after a public poll that took place a month earlier.[1]
InRussian orthography, the sign almost always follows the number (the monetary value), and in many cases there is a space between the two. InEnglish orthography, it usually precedes the number.
In the 18th and 19th centuries there was a symbol for the Russian ruble consisting of lower case Cyrillic letters — a rotatedр on aу. In the 20th centuryр. was used to abbreviate the ruble.
The debates about adopting a national currency symbol for the Russian ruble began nearly from the start ofRussia's transition to a market economy and its economic integration into theglobal market in the 1990s, soon after thedissolution of the Soviet Union. The idea was to reach the same level of recognition and therefore of influence as well-knowncurrency signs such as$ (theUS dollar),€ (theeuro),¥ (theChinese yuan or theJapanese yen) and£ (thePound sterling). There were several contests to choose the ruble sign, hosted by different organizations. However, theCentral Bank of Russia did not adopt one of the winning symbols from these early contests.
In 2007, a group of Russian design bureaus and studios proposed to use ₽, the stroked Cyrillic letter Р to represent the ruble. Soon after, many electronic retailers, restaurants and cafés started to use the sign unofficially. It became very popular and was widely used as ade facto standard.
In November 2013, theCentral Bank of Russia finally decided to adopt a national currency sign. It placed a public poll on its website with five pre-chosen options.
The design provided earlier by the design community that was informally yet widely used (₽) was on the poll's list and got the most votes. On 11 December 2013, ₽ was approved as the official sign for the Russian Federation's ruble.[1]
The international three-letter code (according toInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) standardISO 4217) for the ruble isRUB. InUnicode, it is encoded atU+20BD ₽RUBLE SIGN.
The cryptocurrencyPetro, backed by government ofVenezuela, uses the same symbol as the Ruble, although usually with a rounder upper part ( 
). A currency symbol used in thePokémon media franchise is visually similar to the Ruble sign but instead has two strokes ( 
).
