Salut Michael, You are absolutely right, the currency symbol should never be used in the context you give below. Curiously, the 1981 version of ISO 1000 does allow "80 M$, even 10e6 USD" and other variants derived from standard SI unit notation, all of which I would not use for fear of inflicting severe dyspepsia. As a follow-up, I looked at some web sites of EU countries whose currency symbols prior to 2001 were placed before the numbers. An Irish website (for hotel bookings) gave prices as, for example=20 "euros =80 150.00", having an each way bet on whether the reader can display the euro symbol. So much for my advice Erica, which seems to have been franco-centric. It appears that in countries where the old currency symbol came before the numbers, so does the euro symbol. A country's government can choose not to accept the ISO as a primary standard, after all. For an international readership, and where the material originated in a country where the symbol is put after the numbers, I would still put it after the numbers (but never in the context in Michael's remarks). How confusing could it be, anyway? As always, take into account the 3 factors affecting how you express anything. They are, in order of priority, audience, audience, audience. BTW in a world where I am constantly emailed prices for pirated software, medicine for organ modification and everything else, I found it quite difficult to quickly find a website in languages I read, with written prices, curious. Reg > Reg speaks (sorry, writes) sooth. (G'day, Reg!) But I do think the > distinction between the "local" symbols ($, =A3, =A5, etc) and the SI sym= bols > (USD, UKP, JPY) is worth observing. Most readers would be quite > bewildered > to encounter something like "80 million $", but "80 million USD" > shouldn't > give anyone much dyspepsia. >=20 > Michael Lewis >=20 > -------------------------------------- > Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia > http://www.brandle.com.au > -------------------------------------- >=20 > ************************************************** > To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to > austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx >=20 > To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to > austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject > field. >=20 > To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. >=20 > To search the austechwriter archives, go to > www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter >=20 > To contact the list administrator, send a message to > austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > ************************************************** >=20 >=20 =0D =0D --=0D R=E9ginald Hardman=0D R=E9dacteur Technique=0D Paris, France =0D =0D Reginald Hardman=0D Technical writer=0D Paris, France ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************