What is the origin of currency signs being placed before the numerical value?

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Your assumption is wrong: The position of currency symbols is not "cross-language" but rather dependent largely on language (but also on time and place, i.e. on locale) — contrast English and German, two languages commonly used in the Eurozone (cf. official languages of Ireland/Malta and Germany/Austria/Luxembourg/Liechtenstein/Belgium, respectively) and which therefore deal with Euro all the time:

  • English (e.g. en_IE): €2,500.00 or 2,500.00 EUR
  • Standard High German (e.g. de_DE): 2.500,00 € or 2.500,00 EUR

These examples are not exhaustive, but nevertheless note how these two languages differ despite not only being geographically, politically and economically close but also closely related genetically.

Note similar patterns to each language for an "exotic" currency for both languages, e.g. Japanese yen:

  • English (e.g. en_IE): ¥2,500.00 or 2,500.00 JPY
  • Standard High German (e.g. de_DE): 2.500,00 ¥ or 2.500,00 JPY

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