Cent (currency)


The cent is a monetary unit of many national currencies that equals a hundredth of the basic monetary unit. The word derives from the Latin centum, 'hundred'.
The cent sign is commonly a simple minuscule letter. In North America, the c is crossed by a diagonal or vertical stroke, yielding the character.
The United States one cent coin is generally known by the nickname "penny", alluding to the British coin and unit of that name. Australia ended production of their 1c coin in 1990, New Zealand last produced their 1c coin in 1988, as did Canada in 2012. Some Eurozone countries ended production of the 1 euro cent coin, most recently Slovakia in 2022.

Symbol

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, a vertical line, a simple c, depending on the currency. Cent amounts from 1 to 99 can be represented as one or two digits followed by the appropriate abbreviation, or as a subdivision of the base unit. In some countries, longer abbreviations like "ct." are used. Languages that use other alphabets have their own abbreviations and conventions.
The cent symbol has largely fallen into disuse since the mid-20th century as inflation has resulted in very few things being priced in cents in any currency. It was included on US typewriter keyboards, but has not been adopted on computers.
The CJK Compatibility Unicode block includes the character, a square version of セント,, "cent" in Japanese.

North American cent sign

The cent sign appeared as the shift of the 6 keys on American manual typewriters, but the freestanding circumflex on computer keyboards has taken over that position.

Orthography

When written in English and Mexican Spanish, the cent sign follows the amount for example, 2¢ and $0.02, or 2c and €0.02. Conventions in other languages may vary. For example, in Canada, French texts add a non-breaking space between the amount and the sign: 2¢.

Usage

Minor currency units called ''cent'' or similar names

Examples of currencies around the world featuring centesimal units called cent, or related words from the same root such as céntimo, centésimo, centavo or sen, are:
Examples of currencies featuring centesimal units not called cent
Major unitDivided into
Bhutanese ngultrum100 chhertum
Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark100 pfeniga
Botswanan pula100 thebe
British pound100 pence since Decimal Day, 1971
Bulgarian lev100 stotinki
Cyrillic: стотинки
Chinese yuan100 fēn ; in general usage, divided into 10 jiǎo.
Danish krone100 øre
Egyptian pound100 piastres
Gambian dalasi100 bututs
Ghanaian cedi100 pesewas
Indian rupee100 paise
Israeli new shekel100 agorot
Macau pataca100 avos; circulating coins are 10, 20, and 50 avos.
Macedonian denar100 deni
Malawian kwacha100 tambala
Mongolian tögrög100 möngö
Nepalese rupee100 paisa
Pakistani rupee100 paise
Papua New Guinean kina100 toea
Polish złoty100 groszy
Qatari riyal100 dirhams
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 kopiykas
Zambian kwacha100 ngwee

Obsolete centesimal currency units

Examples of currencies which formerly featured centesimal units but now have no fractional denomination in circulation:
Major unitFormerly divided into
Costa Rican colón100 céntimos
Czech koruna100 haléřů
Hungarian forint100 fillér
Icelandic króna100 aurar
Japanese yen100 sen
Norwegian krone100 øre
South Korean won100 jeon
Swedish krona100 öre
Ugandan shilling100 cents