currency-issues

Currency - Issues

Unit and Value

Example

<span class="money">
  <span class="amount">99</span>
  <abbr class="unit">¢</abbr>
  <abbr class="currency" title="USD"></abbr>
</span>

<span class="money">
  <span class="amount">1.232</span>
  <abbr class="unit">bill.</abbr>
  <abbr class="currency" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>
</span>

Problem

The base for this data (amount) is the currency - USD (U.S. Dollar). But the amount is not 99 Dollar, its 0.99 Dollar. The unit is ¢ (U.S. Cent). While the currency value is defined by ISO 4217, there is no list for a currency and its corresponding factors to the currency base. Therefore it would be problematic to automatic transfere those values.

Similar Problem is the use of billion like 1.232 Bill. Euro. But the amount is not 1,232,000,000 Euro like an native English reader might think, in German it means 1,232,000,000,000 Euro.

Alternative 1

Providing the amount corresponding to the currency:

<span class="money">
  <abbr class="amount" title="0.99">99</abbr>
  <abbr class="unit">¢</abbr>
  <abbr class="currency" title="USD"></abbr>
</span>

<span class="money">
  <abbr class="amount" title="1232000000000">1.232</abbr>
  <abbr class="unit">bill.</abbr>
  <abbr class="currency" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>
</span>

Alternative 2

Providing the unit-factor corresponding to the currency base:

<span class="money">
  <span class="amount">99</span>
  <abbr class="unit" title="0.01">¢</abbr>
  <abbr class="currency" title="USD"></abbr>
</span>

  <span class="money">
  <span class="amount">1.232</span>
  <abbr class="unit" title="1000000000000">bill.</abbr>
  <abbr class="currency" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>
</span>

Alternative 3

Providing the unit-factor corresponding to the currency base in an own element "scale" (I will suggest this also to the measurement format discussion.) Therefore the unit can be used for the currency itself - then it is more in line with a general measurement format.

<span class="money">
  <span class="amount">99</span>
  <abbr class="scale" title="0.01">¢</abbr>
  <abbr class="unit" title="USD"></abbr>
</span>

<span class="money">
  <span class="amount">1.232</span>
  <abbr class="scale" titel="1000000000000">bill.</abbr>
  <abbr class="unit" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>
</span>

Comments

• Alternative 1 is the nearest to being correct, according to the model I have proposed. Andy Mabbett 07:24, 2 Jan 2007 (PST)

Related pages

• Currency
• Currency Examples
• Currency Brainstorming
• Currency Proposal
• Currency Issues