ISO 4217

In the case of national currencies, the first two letters of the alpha code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself. So Japan's currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the names dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of countries, each having significantly differing values.

In some cases, the third letter of the alpha code is not the initial letter of the currency name. There are two possible reasons for this to happen:

• It is considered important that the code of a completely new currency be highly mnemonic. An example is the assignment of the code EUR to the euro. ISO 4217 amendment 94,[5] which created this code, states “The code element 'EU' has been reserved by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency for use within ISO 4217 where 'R' has been appended to make an acceptable mnemonic code.”. Here the R comes from the third letter in the word “euro”.
• The currency in question is replacing another currency of the same name, due to devaluation. So that the two currencies have different codes, a different third letter must be chosen for the code of the new currency. In some cases, the third letter is the initial for "new" in that country's language, to distinguish it from an older currency that was revalued; the code sometimes outlasts the usage of the term "new" itself (for example, the code for the Mexican peso is MXN). Another solution to a devalued currency having the same name as its predecessor is to choose a third letter which results in a 3-letter code with mnemonic significance. For example, the Russian ruble changed from RUR to RUB following a devaluation, where the B comes from the third letter in the word "ruble".

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In addition to codes for most active national currencies ISO 4217 provides codes for "supranational" currencies, procedural purposes, and several things which are "similar to" currencies:

• Codes for the precious metals gold (XAU), silver (XAG), palladium (XPD), and platinum (XPT) are formed by prefixing the element's chemical symbol with the letter "X". These "currency units" are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to "USD 1" or "EUR 1".
• The code XTS is reserved for use in testing.
• The code XXX is used to denote a "transaction" involving no currency.
• There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, e.g. XDR is the symbol for special drawing right issued by the International Monetary Fund.
• The codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit (ECU), had the code XEU.

The use of an initial letter "X" for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO 3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned.

The inclusion of EU (denoting the European Union) in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, allows the euro to be coded as EUR rather than assigned a code beginning with X, even though it is a supranational currency.

The US dollar has two codes assigned: USD and USN (next day). The USS (same day) code is not in use any longer, and was removed from the list of active ISO 4217 codes in March 2014.

According to UN/CEFACT recommendation 9, paragraphs 8–9 ECE/TRADE/203, 1996, available online:

8. In applications where monetary resources associated with a currency (i.e. funds) need not be specified and where a field identifier indicating currency is used, the first two (leftmost) characters are sufficient to identify a currency—example: US for United States dollars for general, unspecified purposes where a field identifier indicating currency is present. (A field identifier can be a preprinted field heading in an aligned document or a similarly-agreed application in electronic transmission of data.)

9. In applications where there is a need to distinguish between types of currencies, or where funds are required as in the banking environment, or where there is no field identifier, the third (rightmost) character of the alphabetic code is an indicator, preferably mnemonic, derived from the name of the major currency unit or fund—example: USD for general, unspecified purposes; USN for United States dollar next-day funds, and USS for funds which are immediately available for Federal Reserve transfer, withdrawal in cash or transfer in like funds (same-day funds). Since there is no need for such a distinction in international trade applications, the funds codes have not been included in the Annex to the present Recommendation.

A number of active currencies do not have an ISO 4217 code, because they may be: (1) a minor currency pegged at par (1:1) to a larger currency, even if independently regulated, (2) a currency only used for commemorative banknotes or coins, or (3) a currency of an unrecognized or partially recognized state. These currencies include:

• Alderney pound (1:1 pegged to the pound sterling)
• Cook Islands dollar (1:1 pegged to the New Zealand dollar)
• Faroese króna (1:1 pegged to the Danish krone)
• Guernsey pound (1:1 pegged to the pound sterling)
• Isle of Man pound (1:1 pegged to the pound sterling)
• Jersey pound (1:1 pegged to the pound sterling)
• Kiribati dollar (1:1 pegged to the Australian dollar)
• Maltese scudo (1:0.24 pegged to the euro[17])
• Sahrawi peseta of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Western Sahara, sometimes given the code "EHP" but this has not been assigned by the ISO
• Somaliland shilling (state of issue is viewed as de jure part of Somalia, exchange rate not fixed)
• Transnistrian ruble (state of issue is viewed as de jure part of Moldova)
• Tuvaluan dollar (1:1 pegged to the Australian dollar)
• Zimbabwean bonds
• RTGS dollar

See Category:Fixed exchange rate for a list of all currently pegged currencies.

Despite having no official recognition in ISO 4217, the following non-ISO codes are sometimes used locally or commercially.

The following non-ISO codes were used in the past.

Minor units of currency (also known as currency subdivisions or currency subunits) are often used for pricing and trading stocks and other assets, such as energy,[26] but are not assigned codes by ISO 4217. Two conventions for representing minor units are in widespread use:

• Replacing the third letter of the ISO 4217 Code of the parent currency with an upper-case "X". Examples are GBX[27][26][28] for Penny Sterling, USX[27] for the US Cent, EUX[27][26] for the Euro Cent.
• Replacing the third letter of the ISO 4217 Code of the parent currency with the first letter of the name of the minor unit, using lower-case. Examples are GBp[29][28] for Penny Sterling, USc[29] for the US Cent, EUc[29] for the Euro Cent.

A third convention is similar to the second one but uses an upper-case letter, e.g. ZAC[30] for the South African Cent. This convention is not in widespread use as it would result in clashes, e.g. between GBP for Pound Sterling and GBP for Penny Sterling.

Recently, cryptocurrencies have unofficially used ISO-like codes on various cryptocurrency exchanges, for instance LTC for Litecoin, NMC for Namecoin and XRP for the XRP Ledger. SIX Interbank Clearing (a Maintenance Agency of ISO) is currently studying the impact and role of cryptocurrencies and other independent currencies on ISO 4217.[31][32]