What ¥ means, where it came from, and how to type it — click to copy.
Click to copy · U+00A5
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Character | ¥ |
| Unicode code point | U+00A5 |
| Unicode name | YEN SIGN |
| Unicode block | Latin-1 Supplement |
| Category | Currency symbol |
| Fullwidth CJK variant | ￥ (U+FFE5), used in East Asian typesetting |
¥ follows a pattern common to many currency symbols: take the first letter of the currency's name and cross it with one or two strokes, the same trick that turned S into $ and L into £. Japan introduced the yen in 1871 as part of the Meiji government's sweeping currency reforms, replacing a patchwork of older feudal-era coinage with a single, Western-style decimal currency, and the crossed-Y symbol came into use alongside it.
Because China's yuan is built on a parallel Latin-alphabet romanization (both "yen" and "yuan" trace to the same Chinese character 圓/元 meaning "round," referring to round coins), the two currencies ended up sharing the same plain-text Unicode symbol rather than each getting a dedicated one.
| Platform | Works? |
|---|---|
| Instagram bio / caption | Yes |
| Discord | Yes |
| TikTok display name | Yes |
| Yes | |
| Roblox / PlayStation / Xbox username | No — alphanumeric only |
| Method | Input |
|---|---|
| Windows Alt code | Alt+0165 |
| Mac | Option+Y |
| HTML entity | ¥ or ¥ |
| CSS content | content: "\00A5" |
¥ is one of dozens of world currency symbols in the full currency symbols library.
Browse Currency Symbols →Both. U+00A5 is a shared plain-text symbol used for both the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan — the two currencies don't have separate standard Unicode symbols, so which one is meant is usually clear from context or an accompanying currency code like JPY or CNY.
It follows the common pattern of crossing a currency's first initial with one or two strokes, similar to how $ derives from S and £ from L. Japan adopted the yen in 1871 as part of Meiji-era currency reforms, and the crossed-Y symbol followed soon after.
On Windows, hold Alt and type 0165 on the numeric keypad (Alt+0165). On Mac, press Option+Y. In HTML, use the entity ¥ or ¥.