Should it be 10 US$ or US$ 10?

Question

Which is correct to use in a sentence, 10 US$ or US$ 10. Perhaps USD should be used instead or even something else?

@RegDwight: my first thought too was that this is a duplicate of What is the difference between 20$ and $20?, but on a second reading, I don’t think it is. This question is about what to do when the currency is being disambiguated more specifically as US$ — which quite conceivably could be different. — PLL, May 21 '11 at 16:51

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered May 21 '11 at 18:13

If you're going to use a symbol rather than spell out the currency's name, you should always put the currency symbol directly to the left of the digits: "$10" and never "10 $".

As for the placement of the country indicator, it's generally before the symbol/amount string: "US $10", although I have seen "$10 US" in magazines as well, so (as long as you're consistent) I wouldn't worry too much.

If you choose "USD", it seems to be your choice whether to put it to the left or the right: "USD 10" or "10 USD".

However, if you're talking about larger amounts - millions, billions, trillions - the rules are a bit more strict: "US $10 billion", "USD 10 billion"

In newspaper and magazine usage recently, it's almost always simply "$" or "dollar", with no national specifier - I looked at today's Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Times of London, Le Monde, Le Figaro, and Der Spiegel - none of them specify the country when referring to dollar amounts (although the French refuse to use a symbol or abbreviation.)

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered May 21 '11 at 15:20

8

If you are trying to make it clear that these are United States dollars (rather than the mighty Canadian version)

"$10 US" or in a more formal economics text possibly, "10 USD"

answered May 21 '11 at 15:20

mgb

24,191

3

In Argentina (and possibly other Latin American countries) they write 10 U$ – snumpy May 21 '11 at 19:29
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@snumpy, but this is English language and usage – mgb May 21 '11 at 21:53
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does that mean that a reference in a comment to how something is represented in a non-English speaking environment is pretentious and uncalled for? – snumpy May 22 '11 at 22:35
@snumpy - No, but i'm assuming that they write US$ because in spanish that word order makes more sense. So it's a function of spanish language and usage not about the US currency. – mgb May 23 '11 at 01:55
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in Spanish, the word order of Dólares Estadounidenses would not lend toward US$ but something closer to $US, DE, $E, or $EEUU (which is the Latin American equivalent of USA). I just thought it interesting that they instead replace the S of US with a dollar symbol. – snumpy May 23 '11 at 12:28
The ISO standard for currency codes apparently doesn't dictate the formatting/style of the designator (USD 10 or 10 USD). EU apparently suggests [currency code+ hard space + number: USD 10; EUR 35). Cite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217#Code_position_in_amount_formatting – Rick Colosimo Mar 26 '24 at 19:38

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 25 '14 at 15:25

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I work in a law office and this is how we are doing it now (lately) (US)$10,000.00!

answered Apr 25 '14 at 15:25

Julia

21

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 22 '11 at 13:43

It's probably best to either use the appropriate sigil (e.g. $) or the ISO currency code (e.g. USD) as a prefix, rather than mixing them. Alternatively, use the sigil, and follow the quantity with a country specifier (e.g. $10 US, $14 CA or $14 Canadian).

Should it be 10 US$ or US$ 10?

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