Economists these days use 'dollars' for 'US Dollars' with 'D' in lower case. Same for rupee, baht and renminbi, et al.
If there is no other dollar type currency in the book, it's ok to use $ sign before currency. Or so I think. $50 - no space between the sign and the number.
USD can be used in tables and figures.
When used alongside another currency, say rupees, then 'dollars' is preferable.
I guess then that I would use US$ when there are other currencies being mentioned in the book, say AU$.
Disclaimer: All my opinions. Use at your own peril! ;)
Dear Editor,
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking up these topics. Along with providing information, they make me want to go back to the books, giving more clarity. I have been editing for almost 10 yrs now, but even for someone like me, they make sense.
Yes, your proposition is right and reasonable.
Traditionally, books and courses on editing discourage the use of currency symbols. I guess the reason is that they wouldn't want to assume all the readers know the symbols. Also, they typically teach using currency names in initial caps.
But that's for traditional teaching!
The dollar symbol, pound symbol,etc., are well known now. Even CMS is okay with the use of the currency symbols when the amount of money is spelled out (9.24). Its also true that ppl have started writing currency names in small case in a big way. And none of this can be called wrong. Language 'is' the way it is used.
So, I guess as editors, our primary task is to just ensure clarity and consistency, and your proposition takes care of these two aspects. :)