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Which is correct to use in a sentence, 10 US$ or US$ 10. Perhaps USD should be used instead or even something else?

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@RegDwight: my first thought too was that this is a duplicate of What is the difference between 20$ and $20?, but on a second reading, I don’t think it is. This question is about what to do when the currency is being disambiguated more specifically as US$ — which quite conceivably could be different. – PLL May 21 '11 at 16:51
@PLL: Fair enough. Let's have some answers, then. – RegDwighт♦ May 21 '11 at 17:07

3 Answers

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If you're going to use a symbol rather than spell out the currency's name, you should always put the currency symbol directly to the left of the digits: "$10" and never "10 $".

As for the placement of the country indicator, it's generally before the symbol/amount string: "US $10", although I have seen "$10 US" in magazines as well, so (as long as you're consistent) I wouldn't worry too much.

If you choose "USD", it seems to be your choice whether to put it to the left or the right: "USD 10" or "10 USD".

However, if you're talking about larger amounts - millions, billions, trillions - the rules are a bit more strict: "US $10 billion", "USD 10 billion"

In newspaper and magazine usage recently, it's almost always simply "$" or "dollar", with no national specifier - I looked at today's Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Times of London, Le Monde, Le Figaro, and Der Spiegel - none of them specify the country when referring to dollar amounts (although the French refuse to use a symbol or abbreviation.)

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up vote 6 down vote

If you are trying to make it clear that these are United States dollars (rather than the mighty Canadian version)

"$10 US" or in a more formal economics text possibly, "10 USD"

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In Argentina (and possibly other Latin American countries) they write 10 U$ – snumpy May 21 '11 at 19:29
@snumpy, but this is English language and usage – mgb May 21 '11 at 21:53
does that mean that a reference in a comment to how something is represented in a non-English speaking environment is pretentious and uncalled for? – snumpy May 22 '11 at 22:35
@snumpy - No, but i'm assuming that they write US$ because in spanish that word order makes more sense. So it's a function of spanish language and usage not about the US currency. – mgb May 23 '11 at 1:55
in Spanish, the word order of Dólares Estadounidenses would not lend toward US$ but something closer to $US, DE, $E, or $EEUU (which is the Latin American equivalent of USA). I just thought it interesting that they instead replace the S of US with a dollar symbol. – snumpy May 23 '11 at 12:28
up vote 1 down vote

It's probably best to either use the appropriate sigil (e.g. $) or the ISO currency code (e.g. USD) as a prefix, rather than mixing them. Alternatively, use the sigil, and follow the quantity with a country specifier (e.g. $10 US, $14 CA or $14 Canadian).

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