Number to Words

American and British Variants

There is one difference, and it stands out: the British style inserts "and" before the tens. 1,234.56 in American English reads "one thousand two hundred thirty-four dollars and fifty-six cents"; in British English, "one thousand two hundred and thirty-four pounds fifty-six pence". Both forms are shown here.

Checks and Invoices

An American check writes the amount as a fraction: "One thousand two hundred thirty-four and 56/100", followed by a line of dashes up to the printed word DOLLARS, so no extra digits can be added to the amount. The word "dollars" is not written by hand; it is already on the form.

Invoices and letters of credit use a different line: the currency code first and the word Only at the end, as in "USD One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-Four and Fifty-Six Cents Only". Only seals the line against additions, the same job the dashes do on a check.

Currency Names

Rubles are written here as "rubles" and kopecks as "kopecks", the spelling used by the ISO 4217 list and the English site of the Bank of Russia. The pound uses "pence" as its fractional unit, and the yen has no fractional part at all.