How to spell the ruble sign. Inserting a Russian ruble symbol in Microsoft Word

31.01.202327.05.2017

Alexander Igorevich

Reading time: ~5 minutes

Many reputable world currencies quoted on the foreign exchange market have their own symbol (ligature) used for abbreviated designation. The US dollar has it - this is the well-known “$”, the Japanese yen - “¥”, the oldest pound sterling - “£” and even the youngest currency - the euro, also has its own short symbol - “€”, which it acquired in as a result of painful elections and torment that ended in December 1996.

But one of the most stable currencies in the world - the Swiss franc still does not have its own ligature, and the Chinese yuan did not act entirely correctly, appropriating the designation of the Japanese yen - it turns out that this happens.

In Russia, the idea of creating its own currency designation has been in the air for a long time, but only at the beginning of December 2013 was a new ruble sign finally chosen.

Attempts to begin developing a short designation for the Russian currency were made back in 1997, after the redenomination. Several variants related to the Latin letter “R” were developed, but a default occurred and the matter stopped. In 1997, the competition was held by the magazine “Financier”, the result was 300 writing options, but none of them were approved.

The second similar competition was held in 1999 by the Dengi magazine, followed by 2 more competitions - from the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, held in 2005-2006, and from RIA Novosti.

The now winning symbol was developed in 2007 by an initiative group created by the famous designer Erken Kagarov, which included Designet, DesignDepot, Imadesign and other companies.

Criteria that the ruble symbol must meet

When choosing the most interesting and suitable options, the ligature’s compliance with the following requirements was taken into account:

Graphic uniqueness and originality of the sign,
Ease of writing, memorization, perception and reproduction of the symbol,
Convenient handwriting
A solid, persistent and unambiguous association with the Russian currency,
Absence of clear associations with any religion,
Preservation of graphic standards and style of writing signs of other world currencies,
Single-part designation is important for simplicity and ease of use (for example, the letters “yu” or “s” are two-part),
The character width must be standard - this is an important parameter for typesetting fonts,
Font independence - the ligature should easily fit into both Cyrillic and Latin fonts, and into any
Uniform density - means the absence of graphic overloads and too small details in one of the parts of the symbol,
The Russian currency designation has historical and cultural roots.

This is only part of the objective requirements - there are also subjective ones, such as speed and ease of identification, harmonious perception of the logo among the designations of other currencies, the absence of negative, ambiguous or dubious associations, and others.

Why do we need a Russian currency symbol?

Many people wonder: “ Why do we even need this logo for our currency?" After all, we lived without it for almost five centuries - since the time of the ruble reform of Elena Glinskaya, the famous mother of Ivan the Terrible.

According to the Central Bank, in other leading countries of the world, currency designations began to appear with the involvement of national currencies in international circulation. Thus, the symbols that appeared received recognition on the world stage. So having your own sign will contribute to the recognition of the Russian currency throughout the world and its recognition.

E. Nabiullina believes that the graphic image emphasizes the stability of the ruble.

As Nikolai Zhuravlev said, “the national currency sign, its presence is an international practice, and now the Russian ruble has ceased to be an exception to the rule in this sense.” He also answered the question of what the presence of a currency logo gives the country: “the official approval of the symbol of the Russian currency will increase its authority in the world market and will become the basis for the unification of the graphic designation.”

According to Alexander Troshin, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council, the appearance of currency symbols on keyboard layouts will help promote the logo throughout the world.

Other interesting facts about the new ruble sign

In 2014, the issue of coins in the denomination of “1 ruble” with the image of the approved designation will be organized. The circulation will be 100 million copies. The coins will be minted throughout 2014 from steel with a nickel plated plating.
In addition, the approved ligature will be used in the packaging of banknotes and in their security symbols.

Symbol (sign) of the ruble- an abbreviation of the word “ruble” that arose as a result of the evolution of Russian writing, which was used from the second half of the 17th century to the second half of the 19th century and was a ligature, a natural combination of superscript letters “r” and “u” for cursive writing. Over time, this ligature lost its original meaning and by the end of the 18th century it turned into an independent symbol, adjacent to modern letters.

The priority for the discovery of the sign belongs to the Minsk historian Ivan Sinchuk. The priority of the first scientific interpretation of the sign belongs to Ekaterina Vorobyova.

Currently, two designs are used as unofficial symbols of the ruble: the lowercase letter “r” with a dot (“r.”), as well as the so-called “Lebedev-Tarbeev sign” (the letter “R” with a crossed out leg).

In accordance with clause 2.1 of Art. 4 of the Law “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)” (86-FZ dated July 10, 2002), it is the Bank of Russia that “approves the graphic designation of the ruble in the form of a sign.” As of December 1, 2012, the ruble symbol has not been approved.

XVII-XIX centuries

Timeline and examples of use

One of the first precisely dated examples of the use of the ruble sign is contained in the Collection of Translations of Epiphany Slavinetsky. It is found in the so-called sales note (an inscription in the margin of a book indicating the fact of ownership, purchase or sale of the book), which reads: “On the 5th day of December 1681, the Belakhonian Vasily Ivanov, son of the Tveritinov, sold this book, spoken by heaven, to the town dweller Terentyev, son of Michnik. And I, Vasily, took the book for 12 rubles 100 altyn 2 money. And I, Vasily, signed it with my own hand. Sold it clean and truly and had a hand in it”.

The latest known example of the use of the ruble sign dates back to the first half of the 19th century. It appears in the entry on the flyleaf of the Code of Law of the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich, which reads: “4 rubles, December 18, 1830”. The recording was made by academician Pavel Stroev, one of the first collectors of ancient Russian written monuments, on a book that was part of his personal library.

There are examples of the use of the ruble sign not only in personal and business correspondence, but also in official documents, for example, in the inventory of things and money seized from the Decembrists during the arrest (GA RF, f. 48).

From a letter from Ivan Sinchuk to the editors of the magazine “Money” dated November 11, 1999.

Historical documents allow us to conclude that by the beginning of the 19th century, the symbol of the ruble was familiar and actively used by representatives of many classes of the Russian Empire: army and court scribes (philistines), booksellers (merchants), university professors (raznochintsy), nobles. For example, a document addressed to the poet Vasily Zhukovsky is known.

I came across a ruble sign similar to that presented in the affairs of the Decembrists in letters from Moscow University professor Mikhail Kachenovsky to Vasily Zhukovsky, in which financial issues related to the publication of the journal “Bulletin of Europe” are discussed. The first letter is dated January 3, 1812, the second - February 23, 1814. The sign is also found in Kachenovsky’s letter to Kazan University professor Perevoshchikov, which talks about sending books for sale. The letter is dated September 18, 1817.
From a letter from Yuri Evdoshenko to the editors of Dengi magazine

The end of the use of the ruble sign dates back to the middle of the 19th century.

Since the sign is found in letters, reports, and inventories, we can conclude that it is widely used both in official documents and in everyday correspondence. This is confirmed by other “cases” of the 48th fund. For example, “The case of things and money that belonged to Batenkov” (No. 296), “The case of the sale at auction of things that belong to no one knows who, and the criminals Yushevsky and Shchepin-Rostovsky due to inconvenience in correspondence” (No. 297), the case “At the request of arrested persons about the release of their own money to buy tobacco and for other needs" (No. 298), "The case of government claims opened against former regimental commanders and other officers involved in the case of a secret society" (No. 300) ... But in In documents of a later period, the “ruble sign” is no longer found. In any case, I did not find it in other documents randomly ordered from the Civil Code of the Russian Federation dating back to the mid-19th century (in the first and second inventories of the 95th fund “Investigative Commission of 1862. Material evidence”, in case No. 245 “On vacation money to the St. Petersburg and Moscow commissions, at the request of Count M.N. Muravyov and about the expenses thereof" and in case No. 6 "Accounts of Dostoevsky M.M. and E., cash receipts and bank statements").
Pavel Timashkov specially for Dengi magazine

It should also be noted that there was experience in using the ruble sign in printing - in particular, in Magnitsky’s “Arithmetic” (1703), but this experience was not widespread.

Historical outline of the ruble symbol

Act of redistribution of copper into coins (XVIII century)

According to the classical version, which Ekaterina Vorobyova adheres to in her works, in the letter combination “ru”, which became the basis of the independent sign of the ruble, the letter “r” (“rtsy”) is rotated 90° counterclockwise, and the letter “u” (“uk” ) is written over it. Another point of view is shared by Ivan Sinchuk, who believes that the letter “p” rotates 90° counterclockwise, and the letter “u” written on top of it rotates 90° clockwise. Both versions are confirmed in the primary sources: the specific outline of the sign strongly depends on the characteristics of the handwriting and varies from a clear reproduction of one of the options described above to a regular cross.

The use of cursive letter combinations of the 16th-17th centuries is a common phenomenon in the practice of scribes of the 18th-19th centuries. Just as often as the letter combination “ru”, a ligature of the superscript letters “m” and “u” was used. For example, it appears several times in the Determination on the reorganization of the Academic University, compiled by Mikhail Lomonosov and recorded by a scribe on February 14, 1760, and is used as the end of ordinal numbers in the dative case: “1 mu professor of general rights, 2 mu Russian rights, 3 mu history and politics." Like the ruble symbol, the “mu” ligature, which originally appeared as a combination of superscript letters, is written in a superscript (superscript) to the right of the numbers.

In the 17th century, the ligature “ru”, being actually a letter combination, was written above the numbers in accordance with the rules of cursive writing. At the same time, Cyrillic letters were then used as numbers, over which the title was written. In the case of monetary amounts, the title was replaced by the cursive ligature “ru”.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Cyrillic letters and numbers were replaced by Arabic numerals, and the need to use titlos disappeared. From this moment on, the ligature “ru” begins to shift in relation to the numbers to the right and down, losing its original meaning as a letter combination and turning into a full-fledged symbol, an independent grapheme.

In the 19th century, having become a sign, the ligature “ru” was significantly reduced in size and written to the right of the numbers above the main line - the way ordinal numbers are now written using numbers in English, that is, using a superscript, or superscript (1 st , 2nd, etc.). In Russian, when handwritten, such an index is usually underlined by one or two lines (1 th , 2 th etc.). But in the case of monetary amounts, the horizontal “p” often replaces such lines.

Thus, replacing first the title, and then a single or double underscore, the horizontal “p” in the ligature-sign “ru” was greatly simplified to a straight or wavy horizontal line. As a result, the classic cursive ligature in the form of a horizontal “r” and a vertical “u” written on top of it began to resemble a shortened letter “u” crossed out below the middle.

Modern interpretations of the ruble symbol

The only attempt to scientifically systematize variants of the ruble sign on very limited material (documents of 1820-1830 from the National Historical Archive of Belarus in Grodno) was made by Ivan Sinchuk in his work “The Many Faces of the Ruble Sign”.

The only professional attempt to link the historical sign of the ruble to the main typefaces of modern fonts in 1998 was made by the art director of the ParaType company Vladimir Efimov.

The only attempt to create a modern logo based on the sign of the 17th-19th centuries was made in 2005 by journalists and artists of the magazine “Everything is clear” (repeated in 2009 in the magazine “Idea X”).

A variant of writing the sign in one stroke was proposed in 1999 by Yuri Kalashnov.

Symbols of other denominations and units of account

A comparative analysis of documents of the 18th century and documents of the 19th century allows us to assume (for now this is just an assumption that requires additional study) that other denominations of Russian money also had their own symbols, in particular, the kopeck, money and altyn.

Having originated as superscript letter combinations typical for cursive writing (“de” - money; “ko” - kopek) or simply letters (“a” - altyn), the quasi-symbols of these denominations retained their basic cursive features until the first half of the 19th century, violating the already established time reduction rules. So “money” should already be abbreviated as “den.” or “d.”, and kopek - like “kop.” or to.". But like the ruble symbol, they only shifted relative to the number to the right and slightly down, supplemented by a single or double underline (kopeck - co, money - de, altyn - a).

The end of the use of these symbols, as well as the ruble symbol, dates back to the middle of the 19th century.

Period	Hryvnia	Altyn	Money	Kopek
Cursive writing of the 17th-18th centuries.	no rice			no rice
Cursive writing of the first half of the 19th century.	no rice		no rice
Magnitsky's Arithmetic (1703)				no rice
Modern styles		No	No	No

Drawings of ligatures of the ruble symbol and the kopeck symbol

Ruble symbol	Penny symbol

The ligatures are based on the work of Ivan Sinchuk “The Many Faces of the Ruble Sign”, prepared on the basis of documents of 1820-1830 from the National Historical Archive of Belarus in Grodno.

XX-XXI centuries

Chronicle

With the beginning of the integration of the Russian economy into the world economy (90s of the 20th century) and the widespread use of foreign currencies in internal Russian circulation (primarily the dollar, which has its own recognizable sign), proposals were repeatedly made to introduce a sign for the Russian ruble. With the advent of the euro and the approval of its sign, such proposals began to be heard more often and resulted in several unofficial competitions, promotions and initiatives to introduce the ruble sign.

The first known one is the competition, which was held in 1997 by the magazine “Financier” and which received about 300 works (the author of the idea was Andrey Eremenko).

Finalists of the “Ruble Sign” campaign

The second in time was the “Sign of the Ruble” campaign, which was held in 1999-2000. carried out by the magazine “Money” and the Club of Graphic Designers “Portfolio” (the authors of the idea were Yuri Kalashnov and Pyotr Bankov). 300 authors took part in it, proposing a total of about 1000 options for the design of the ruble sign. An important feature of this action was that during it, for the first time in modern history, evidence of the existence of the ruble sign of the 17th-19th centuries was found. At the same time, about 1000 people were surveyed and asked the question “Does the Russian ruble need a symbol similar to the signs of the dollar, euro, pound sterling and other currencies?” Over 85% of respondents responded positively. When asked whether contemporaries are ready to consider the combination of superscript letters “p” and “u” as a ruble sign now, the following result was obtained: 73% - “for”, 23% - “against”.

The third was the competition “Draw the symbol of the ruble!”, held by the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” in 2005-2006. The competition became the most widespread in terms of the number of applications submitted: the editors received more than 5,000 sketches.

The fourth competition is “Create a ruble sign”, held by RIA Novosti in 2006. The organizers received about 300 proposals, and the best ones were submitted to the Central Bank and the State Duma.

It is also necessary to note the huge number of individual initiatives that were expressed in direct letters to various government bodies (primarily the State Duma and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation) and even registration of images of the ruble sign in the Russian Society of Authors.

In addition to competitions and promotions, a study conducted in 2006 by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) and the newspaper Izvestia deserves attention. On May 25, the newspaper published 13 signs, which were pre-selected by experts interviewed by Izvestia. VTsIOM presented them to Muscovites in four focus groups and found that 4 signs left Muscovites indifferent, 3 were considered inappropriate, 4 were considered “ambivalent.” Only two signs aroused interest among respondents. These are projects by Tagir Safaev (Latin “R” with two horizontal lines at the top of the vertical leg) and Vladimir Efimov (Latin “R” with a double diagonal leg). The results of the study were presented on June 14 at the round table “What should the sign of the ruble be?”

Later, the Bank of Russia working group on approving the ruble symbol held several more meetings, but no official press releases were issued based on the results of its work, so the topic easily became the object of various speculations. Here is just one typical example:

As a source who took part in the work of the Central Bank commission told the Dzhinsa news agency, the new sign of the ruble will be officially approved after some time, but the final decision on how it will look has already been made. The new ruble sign will look like this: P. That is, it will be a capital Russian letter “P” with a dot. The sign is placed with a space after the digital indication of the amount (for example: 100 RUR), the source said. According to him, this sign was approved mainly for the following reasons:

such a designation is intuitively clear to any Russian;

the Russian “P” can be written even in the absence of a Cyrillic font, replacing it with a similar-looking Latin letter “P”;

Everyone will be able to use this sign immediately after approval - there will be no need to introduce any additional symbol into international standards, wait a long time for it to appear on keyboards and spend huge amounts of money on the implementation of this sign.

It is also believed that the Central Bank considers the abbreviation “RR” as a symbol of the ruble, which is one of the tools for protecting Russian paper money from counterfeiting and is visible on the strip under the design on the obverse of the banknote when viewed from an acute angle in reflected light (kipp effect) . The basis for this conclusion was a letter received by the organizing committee of the “Sign of the Ruble” campaign from the Department of External and Public Relations of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in response to an invitation to delegate a bank representative to the jury of the competition.

In mid-2007, the design studios “Design Depot”, “Designet”, “Direct Design”, “Imadesign”, “Letterhead”, ParaType and Artemy Lebedev Studio proposed using the letter “P” with a leg crossed out below the semicircle as a sign for the ruble .

To select the “Ruble Sign” symbol, we used objective criteria that are important for its effective use:

Simplicity of graphics;

Difference from other writing characters adopted in the main font systems, primarily in Cyrillic and Latin;

Intuitive clarity for a representative of Russian-speaking culture. The sign is introduced primarily into domestic circulation, so it is more important that it is correctly perceived by Russians than by foreigners;

Convenience of writing by hand (among other things, motor memorization is the fastest and most reliable);

Single-composition. A character consisting of one grapheme is faster to read and usually takes up less space. A single-component, non-ligature sign is easier to integrate into a tabular set, which is extremely important in this case;

Font independence. A symbol, a grapheme, is introduced into everyday use, and not a sign of a specific font. This grapheme should be able to be stylized into any typeface of an existing or future font when supplemented with a ruble sign;

Uniform density. The absence of areas overloaded with strokes, too small, unnecessary strokes. These parameters become crucial in a small-sized set. The character should not appear in the fourth point of the text font;

The width is no greater than zero (the widest digit). An important parameter: in typesetting fonts, the widths of currency symbols must correspond to the widths of numbers to simplify table typesetting;

Understandable to a foreigner familiar with the Latin alphabet;

The presence of slight unusualness within the normal range, facilitating memory and recognition.

From the manifesto of design studios

If you're looking for support for the new Russian ruble symbol, you're in luck. After you install this update for Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012, you will be able to enter, view, print, and use the new character with data formatted as Russian currency. More information about the update.

Some changes implemented in this update

The following font families have been updated: Arial, Times New Roman, Microsoft Sans Serif, Tahoma, Cambria, Calibri and Segoe UI.

Six keyboards localized for Russia now support entering the ruble symbol using the ALTGR+8 keys. Learn more about adding or changing an input language in the Windows 8 operating system.

Locale information has been updated so that the new symbol is automatically used with items formatted as currency in Access fields, Excel cells, or currency columns in SharePoint lists. Learn more about changing your preferred language in the Windows 8 operating system.

Entering the ruble symbol from the keyboard

If your keyboard does not support entering the ruble symbol, you can insert it using one of the methods described below.

ALT-X keys Type "20BD" and then press and hold the ALT key and press the X key. (This feature is supported in OneNote, Outlook with Word as the editor, and in Word.)

Important: Some Office applications, such as PowerPoint, do not support converting Unicode codes to characters. If you need to insert Unicode characters in an application that doesn't support them, use .

Inserting symbols Select teams Insert > Symbol. (This feature is supported in Excel, InfoPath, PowerPoint, Publisher, SharePoint Designer, OneNote, Outlook with Word as editor, and in Word.)

Adviсe:

If the character you want to insert is not in the list, select Other characters. In field Font select the font you want, click the character you want to insert, and click the button Insert.

If you select an advanced font such as Arial or Times New Roman, the Set list appears. It allows you to select the desired set, including Greek and Russian (Cyrillic), if available.

Ruble symbol stamp

If the printer's built-in fonts do not contain the Russian ruble symbol, an empty frame will be printed instead. To learn how to add the Russian ruble symbol to your printer's built-in fonts, contact your printer supplier. You can also change your printer settings so that it does not use built-in fonts. To do this, use the parameter Print fonts as graphics in the printer settings.

There are times when you need to use characters that are not on the keyboard. For example, all sorts of crosses, stars and hearts in statuses or nicknames on social networks, such as VKontakte or Facebook. This article describes in detail how to type such characters.

And so, just below you will see two ways, the first is to type such characters on a computer using codes with the Alt key, and the second way to type on an Android tablet or smartphone, which is also necessary. And just below you will learn how to type the ruble sign on the keyboard.

A set of symbols and signs on the keyboard.

There is such a wonderful key - "Alt". It is often used, for example, when using keyboard shortcuts in other programs, such as . But today we need it for other cases, namely, for typing various symbols and signs that are not on the keyboard. Below you will see a list of codes and opposite symbols. You just need to hold down the Alt key and on the right side of the keyboard type the code that corresponds to the character you need.

If these buttons do not work, then you need to turn on the NumPad, to do this you need to press the Num Lock key, otherwise the NumPad buttons will work as controls for you.

As you can see, everything is simple.

Character codes with Alt key. So, how do you enter characters on the keyboard with the Alt key? Everything is much simpler than it seems. In order to enter a character, you need to hold down the Alt key and type numbers on the NumPad.

After which you can omit the Alt key, but the main question arises: what numbers should you enter to get the desired character? This is where the list of Alt character codes below will come to your aid. The list is considerable; it contains various symbols from hearts and crosses to zodiac signs.

Alt symbol table:

How to type the ruble symbol on the keyboard?

If you need a ruble sign, then you probably already noticed that it is not found anywhere on the keys, let's figure out how to enter the ruble sign.

In Windows 10, 8.1, 8 and Windows 7, you can also type the ruble sign using the Alt key. To do this you need to press and hold right Alt + 8. If you can’t type the ruble sign in Windows 7, then the update may not be installed, just update the system through Windows Update.

Also, you can just copy the ruble sign here - ?.

Symbols of the zodiac signs.

You can simply select these symbols of the zodiac signs, copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) to the desired place, either from a computer or from a mobile device.

Twins.

Scorpion.

Sagittarius.

Capricorn.

Aquarius.

Character set on an Android device.

If you are using a tablet or smartphone on Android, then it is even easier to enter characters here, because you do not need to use any codes. The default keyboard (usually the Google keyboard) is of course good and convenient, but there is a more universal analogue “Hackers Keyboard”. This keyboard has many symbols that can be entered without codes. This keyboard is completely free and is available on the Play Market.

Now you can type characters that are not on the keyboard, thanks to the Alt character table, you also learned how to type the ruble sign and enter symbols on an Android device. That's all, if you have any questions or have anything to add, please comment.

The national monetary unit of Russia, the ruble, is one of the few currencies in the world that for a long period of time did not have its own unique graphic image. Traditionally, most people used the simple letter “P” with a dot at the end to denote the ruble for a short understanding of the latter. In 2013, the National Bank of the Russian Federation decided to hold an open discussion and vote on the regulator’s website from November 5 to December 5 to determine the graphic sign for the national currency. Based on the results of the survey, a new designation for the ruble was introduced, but more on that below.

How did the voting go?

280 thousand people took an active part in the discussion of an important state issue. More than half of those who took part in the survey not only voted for one of the proposed options, but also justified their choice in the form of detailed comments. The voter ratings and their feedback were carefully studied and analyzed by central bank specialists. It was on their basis that the final decision was made. The procedure according to which the graphic designation of the ruble was approved was one of the tasks of Russia, in particular the Central Bank of the country, which was determined at the legislative level.

Voting statistics

The chosen sign in the shape of the Cyrillic letter “P”, which is crossed out at the bottom, became the favorite, for which 61% of participants voted. 19% of survey participants voted for the second version of the image. The remaining symbols scored 5.5%, 4.5% and 1.9%. Among those who took part in the survey, there were those (8%) who expressed their disapproval of each of the presented options. Citizens of various age groups and social strata of society took part in the popular vote. The greatest activity was observed among citizens of the country, whose age ranged from 25 to 34 years.

The majority of those who expressed their opinion (72%) are men. Another interesting fact is that citizens (86.5%) who have an education decided to choose the symbol for the ruble. The first 100 thousand participants gave preference to one of the proposed options already on the first day of open voting.

Options for possible graphic representation

The first interest in choosing a designation for the national currency was recorded back in 1998. At that time, about 100 options were submitted for consideration, which came from 6 different countries. Then a real existing sign had an advantage. The mention of it is found in the historian Ivan Sinchuk and dates back to the 17th century. The outdated designation of the ruble was presented in the form of the letters “P” and “U”, which were written in cursive. The first letter of the symbol was rotated 90 degrees. Most of the proposals were limited to modifications of the letter “P”. As an alternative, there were sentences in the form of the letter “Ъ”. This symbol acted not only as the ancient Russian sign “er”, but also was a kind of hint that the Russian monetary unit could be included in the list of hard currencies of the world.

Introduction of the sign into circulation

The designation of the ruble in the format of a graphic symbol was considered back in the 90s, but it was not possible to implement the idea at that time. The relevance of the issue in 2006 was due to the fact that in the global economy many currencies of the world have become more significant, which became a prerequisite for the introduction of their designations. The designation of the ruble with a sign aroused particular interest among the domestic government during the period when the European currency came into circulation. In 2006, during the period when the law on the Central Bank was adopted, the introduction of an image of the national currency became a very specific and pressing issue. Residents of the country saw the actual use of the chosen sign already in 2014. It appeared on new, minted monetary units with a face value of 1 ruble. This sign is planned to be used when packaging banknotes and in the future to be used as a security mark on paper banknotes and in other formats.

International symbol of the ruble

The international graphic image of the Russian monetary unit, as mentioned above, is now presented in the format of the Cyrillic letter “P”, which is crossed out at the bottom. This symbol format represents the stability of the monetary unit. Elvira Nabiullina, who holds the post of Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, officially announced that the symbol will now proudly represent the ruble on the international market, in particular when displaying quotes and the actual value of world currencies. Work on the creation of the symbol was carried out over 6 years by a special working group since the adoption of the law on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which came into force on July 1, 2007. Now the Russian monetary unit can stand on a par with other world currencies and compete with them on an equal footing in all branches of the global financial market.

New symbols on new coins

The updated designation of the Russian ruble can today be seen on new coins, which were minted in a circulation of 100 million. They entered circulation on June 17, 2014 and have a denomination of 1 ruble. According to information provided by the Russian press service, the coin has the shape of a circle with a diameter of 20.5 millimeters. The reverse side of the coin is decorated with a graphic symbol of the currency and is supplemented with the inscription “ruble”. There is a stylized plant-themed ornament in the form of a curved branch with smoothly intertwining stems.

made of silver

The new symbols of the Russian monetary unit can be seen on new collectible coins with a denomination of 3 rubles. The coin is made of silver and has a diameter of 39 millimeters. The concentration of semi-precious metal is 31.1 grams per monetary unit. The alloy purity is 925. The quality of the product corresponds to the “proof” category. The circulation is 500 pieces. Products of uncirculated quality were produced in quantities of 1000 pieces. In the future, it is planned to issue similar coins, but from base metals and with a denomination of 1 ruble. According to preliminary estimates, the circulation will be 100 million monetary units. In the future, a nickel alloy will be used. From coins in circulation, commemorative banknotes differ in the design of the reverse side. The tails is decorated with a relief image of the graphic sign of the ruble in the “P” format, but with a crossed out leg.

Two countries, two stories, two different graphic images of the ruble

In 2005, in honor of the tenth anniversary of the country's currency, the designation of the state's national bank was approved. Despite the similarity between the names of Russian and Belarusian monetary units, their symbolism is radically different. Thus, according to official reports of the NBRB, the sign of the Belarusian currency is a combination of two Latin letters “Br”. The idea of creating the symbol was based on the government’s desire to make the country’s monetary unit original, recognizable and memorable at first sight. Its use should not cause difficulties when typing on a computer and when writing a symbol by hand, which, in principle, was achieved. After the official creation of the sign for the Belarusian ruble, the government strongly recommended its active use by non-bank financial institutions, as well as in the production, placement and distribution of advertising materials, goods, services and works. As in Russia, the choice of symbols was carried out by popular vote, in the format of a competition in which participants proposed their own versions of the sign. Three leaders, whose proposals were noted by the competition commission, were rewarded financially in the amount of 1,275,000 Belarusian rubles. Only 5 characters out of 5 thousand received options took part in the competition.