Cent (currency)

The cent, commonly represented by the cent sign (a minuscule letter c crossed by a diagonal stroke or a vertical line: ¢; or a simple c), is a monetary unit of many national currencies that equals ​1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word centum meaning hundred.

A United States one-cent coin, also known as a penny

Cent also refers to a coin worth one cent. The United States 1¢ coin is generally known by the nickname "penny", alluding to the British coin and unit of that name. Canada ended production of their 1¢ coin in 2012.

Symbol
¢ c
Cent (currency)
In UnicodeU+00A2 ¢ CENT SIGN (HTML ¢ · ¢)
U+0063 c LATIN SMALL LETTER C (HTML c)
Currency
Currencyvarious
Related
See alsoU+FFE0 ￠ FULLWIDTH CENT SIGN (HTML ￠)
Category

The cent may be represented by the cent sign, written in various ways according to the national convention and font choice. Most commonly seen forms are a minuscule letter c crossed by a diagonal stroke or a vertical line, with a tick above and below, or by a simple c, depending on the currency (see below). Cent amounts from 1 to 99 can be represented as one or two digits followed by the appropriate abbreviation (2¢, 5c, 75¢, 99c), or as a subdivision of the base unit ($0.75, €0.99) In some countries, longer abbreviations like "ct." are used. Languages that use other alphabets have their own abbreviations and conventions.

The cent sign appeared as the shift of the 6 key on American manual typewriters, but that position has been taken over by the circumflex on computer keyboards. The character (offset 162) can still be created in most common code pages, including Unicode and Windows-1252:

  • On DOS- or Windows-based computers, Alt is held while typing 0162 or 155 on the numeric keypad.[1] If there is no numeric keypad, as on many laptops, A2 is typed in Windows Wordpad followed by Alt+X and copy/paste the resulting ¢ into the target document. For the US International keyboard <Right Alt> <Shift> c is typed (Windows).
  • On Macintosh systems, ⌥ Option is held and 4 on the number row is pressed.
  • On Unix/Linux systems with a compose key, Compose+|+C and Compose+/+C are typical sequences.

When written in English, the cent sign (¢ or c) follows the amount (with no space between)—for example, 2¢ and $0.02, or 2c and €0.02.

Usage
East India Company half cent (1845).
Obverse: Crowned head left with lettering Queen Victoria Reverse: Face value, year and "East India Company" inscribed inside wreath.
18,737,498 coins minted in 1845.
A Russian one-kopek coin

Minor currency units called cent or similar names

Examples of currencies around the world featuring centesimal (​1⁄100) units called cent, or related words from the same root such as céntimo, centésimo, centavo or sen, are:

Minor currency units with other names

Examples of currencies featuring centesimal (​1⁄100) units not called cent

Major unit Divided into
British pound100 pence (singular: penny) since 1971
Bulgarian lev100 stotinki
Cyrillic: стотинки
("hundredths")
Chinese Yuan/Renminbi100 fēn (分); in general usage, divided into 10 jiǎo (角).
Croatian kuna100 lipa
Danish krone100 øre
Estonian mark100 penni (singular: penn)
Indian rupee100 paise
Israeli new shekel100 agorot
Macau pataca100 avos; circulating coins are 10, 20, and 50 avos.
Macedonian denar100 deni
Mongolian tögrög100 möngö
Norwegian krone100 øre
Pakistani rupee100 paise
Polish złoty100 groszy (singular: grosz)
Romanian and Moldovan leu100 bani
Russian ruble100 kopeks
Saudi riyal100 halalas
Serbian dinar100 paras
Swedish krona100 öre
Swiss francGerman: 100 Rappen
French: 100 centimes
Italian: 100 centesimi
Romansch: 100 raps
Thai baht100 satang
Turkish Lira100 kuruş
United Arab Emirates dirham100 fils
Ukrainian hryvnia100 kopijkas.

Obsolete centesimal currency units

Examples of currencies which formerly featured centesimal (​1⁄100) units but now have no fractional denomination in circulation:

Major unit Formerly divided into
Costa Rican colón(until the 1980s) 100 céntimos.
Czech koruna100 hellers
Hungarian forint100 fillér
The last fillér coin was removed from circulation in 1999, but it continues to be used in calculation, e.g. for petrol. The fillér was also used as the centesimal unit for the currencies preceding the forint: the Hungarian pengő, the Hungarian korona and the Austro-Hungarian krone.
Icelandic króna100 eyrir (singular aurar)
Japanese yen100 sen or 1000 rin
South Korean Won100 jeon
Ugandan shilling(until 2013) 100 cents.

Examples of currencies which use the cent symbol for other purposes:

  • Costa Rican colón – The common symbol '¢' is frequently used locally to represent '₡', the proper colón designation
  • Ghanaian cedi – The common symbol '¢' is sometimes used to represent '₵', the proper cedi designation
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See also

Notes
  1. See Alt code for more information.
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