Currency Geeks Rejoice, Russia Has A New Symbol For The Rouble

Huge numismatic news today out of Russia today. The country has chosen its new currency symbol.

Weeks after Russia announced it would crowdsource five symbol options to its citizenry, the Bank of Russia has revealed the new symbol in an "effort to encourage the use of the ruble in international trade and as a potential reserve currency," the Wall Street Journal's Andrey Ostroukh reports. From the Journal:

The winner is the Russian letter R-which looks like a P in Latin script-crossed with a horizontal stripe, which took 61% of the more than 284,000 votes, the central bank said Wednesday.

The idea of creating a symbol for the ruble to rival the $, € and £ signs emerged in the 1990s. The central bank said it had been inspired by the European Union's introduction of the euro. But after Russia defaulted in 1998, talk of creating a symbol waned while the country focused on straightening out its financial affairs.

It's definitely a major status upgrade for the rouble, which previously had no symbol.

Behold:

We think the "P" maintains the cyrillic integrity, while the dashed line gives it enough of an "R" feel to indulge international investors. Job well done, Russia. Here were the other options: