Euro sign (€)
The euro sign (€) stands for the euro, the single currency of the member countries of the European Economic and Monetary Union. It is based on the Greek letter epsilon, crossed by two parallel lines for stability.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Unicode encodes it as EURO SIGN (U+20AC), the currency sign for the European Monetary Union. The European Union describes the symbol as based on the Greek letter epsilon (ε), for the first letter of the word “Europe”, with two parallel lines signifying stability. The euro’s ISO code is EUR, which the EU uses when referring to amounts without the symbol. The European Union, represented by the European Commission, owns the copyright in the euro symbol.
Also searched as: €, € meaning, euro sign, euro sign symbol, euro symbol, eur sign.
These describe what each sign means and which currency uses it. They are not financial advice, and they give no prices or exchange rates.
Not the ECU sign
Unicode has an older character, the euro-currency sign ₠ (U+20A0), which was intended for the ECU and was not widely used. Unicode’s chart is blunt about it: “this is NOT the euro!”
Why fonts draw it differently
The Commission set a design for the sign, but Unicode notes that type designers freely adapt even the euro sign’s design to fit the rest of their fonts, so the € in one typeface can differ from the € in another.
Read next
- Next in Currency symbolsPound sign (£)The pound sign (£) stands for the pound sterling, the currency of the United Kingdom, and is written before the number: £10. It began as the letter L, for the Latin libra.
- The same shape in Asian flagsFlag of IranIran’s flag has three equal stripes of green, white and red, with the national emblem in red in the centre and the words “Allahu akbar” (“God is greatest”) written 22 times in white along the edges of the green and the red. Iran’s constitution names the colours, the emblem and the motto but gives them no meaning; the art historian Kimia Maleki writes that the 22 marks the day the revolution of 1979 won, the 22nd day of the 11th month of the Iranian calendar.
More currency symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with curves and waves, letters and numbers or lines.
Sources
- Currency Symbols: Range 20A0–20CF (code chart), The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0, Unicode Consortium, 20A0, 20AC
- Chapter 22, Symbols: 22.1 Currency Symbols, The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0, Core Specification, Unicode Consortium, 22.1 Currency Symbols (Fonts; Euro Sign)
- Euro: Design, european-union.europa.eu, The Euro, European Union, Symbol; Copyright
- Communication from the Commission: The use of the Euro symbol, Euro related publications, July 1997 (summary page), European Commission, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, Summary
- The euro: our currency, Information brochure, June 2002, European Central Bank, Euro symbol
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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