Ruble sign (₽)
The ruble sign (₽) stands for the Russian ruble. It is the Cyrillic capital letter Р, which is R in Russian, crossed by a horizontal line in its lower part.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Unicode encodes it as RUBLE SIGN (U+20BD), adopted as the official symbol for the currency of the Russian Federation in 2013, and notes that ruble is also the name of other currencies in Eastern Europe and that English uses both spellings, ruble and rouble. Under Article 75 of the Russian constitution, the Bank of Russia notes, the ruble is the country’s currency unit and the Bank is its sole issuer. The ISO code is RUB.
Also searched as: ₽, rouble sign, ruble sign, ruble sign symbol, ruble symbol, rub symbol, russian ruble symbol.
These describe what each sign means and which currency uses it. They are not financial advice, and they give no prices or exchange rates.
Why it looks like a P
The Cyrillic Р is sounded as R. When the sign was chosen, The Moscow Times reported critics’ view that it would confuse foreigners: to English speakers it looks like a Latin P with no obvious link to the word ruble. Nabiullina’s answer was that “dollar does not begin with the letter ‘S’”.
Look-alikes
The Philippine peso sign ₱ is also a P crossed by lines, but with two lines through the bowl of the P rather than one below it.
Read next
- Next in Currency symbolsTurkish lira sign (₺)The Turkish lira sign (₺) stands for the Turkish lira. The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye introduced it in March 2012. In the bank’s words, its anchor shape and two upward lines stand for confidence and a steadily rising value.
- The same shape in Smoke and CO alarm soundsLow-frequency 520 Hz alarm (sleeping rooms)A fire alarm in a sleeping room that sounds a low buzz in place of a high-pitched beep. It is the three-beep fire alarm rhythm at 520 Hz, which NFPA 72 requires of alarms provided to wake people in sleeping areas.
More currency symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers or lines.
Sources
- Chapter 22, Symbols: 22.1 Currency Symbols, The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0, Core Specification, Unicode Consortium, 22.1 Currency Symbols (Ruble Sign)
- Cash Circulation, Bank of Russia, Cash Circulation Department, Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia), Page text
- Central Bank Picks Symbol for Ruble, The Moscow Times, 11 December 2013, The Moscow Times, Article text
- ISO 4217 currency code list (List One), Current currency and funds code list, SIX Financial Information (ISO 4217 Maintenance Agency), Russian Federation
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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