Draft:Unit separator

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The term unit separator is used of marks that distinguish closely related terms. The most common unit separator is the decimal point, written as a full stop (period) or a comma, depending on national convention.[a] In this usage, the more specific term decimal separator is used.

Currency

Most currencies have a primary and a secondary unit, with the latter being most often one-hundredth part of the former. For example, the secondary unit of the dollar is the cent. In these cases, the unit separator is a decimal point.

But some currencies have other bases: perhaps the best known of these is the pound sterling prior to decimalisation in 1971) . The pound was divisible into 20 shillings, each of which was divisible into 12 pence. The unit separator was the slash, /. Thus, for example, one-eighth of a pound was written 2/6 (two shillings and sixpence[b]); ten times that amount was written £1/5/- (one pound, five shillings, with a dash rather than a zero for the number of pence). The classical psychological price (one penny less than £10) was written £9/19/11 (nine pounds, nineteen shillings and eleven pence).

See also

Notes

  1. [a]
    Except in East Africa, where the decimal separator is a slash.
  2. [b]
    without a pound sign

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