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Draft:Saudi riyal sign

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  • Comment: Is there a reason for the comparison between the Iranian and Saudi rial symbols? 𐩣𐩫𐩧𐩨 Abo Yemen (𓃵) 11:52, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
"⃁" redirects here. For the currency, see Saudi riyal.
⃁
SAUDI RIYAL SIGN
In UnicodeU+20C1 ⃁ SAUDI RIYAL SIGN
Currency
CurrencySaudi riyal
Different from
Different fromU+FDFC ﷼ RIAL SIGN
Category
The Saudi riyal symbol.

The Saudi riyal sign (⃁) is the official currency symbol for the Saudi riyal (SAR), the currency of Saudi Arabia. On 20 February 2025, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud officially approved the symbol, and the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced its adoption. The symbol represents the Saudi riyal in all financial and commercial transactions at local, regional, and international levels, and its implementation will be gradual, coordinated across all relevant entities.[1][2][3]

Saudi Arabia is the first Arab country to issue a symbol for its currency, aiming to strengthen the national currency's identity, promote pride in national and cultural heritage, develop the financial sector, and highlight the Kingdom's position among major global economies and G20 countries, in line with Saudi Vision 2030. The development of the symbol involved collaboration between SAMA, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Media, and the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization.[4][5][6]

The symbol consists of the Arabic word: "ريال" (Riyal), inspired by Arabic calligraphy. Its international three-letter code, according to ISO 4217, is SAR. The symbol is intended to streamline the representation of the Saudi riyal in all financial and commercial contexts, both locally and internationally.[4][5][6]

Design

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Official geometric design specifications of the Saudi riyal symbol, provided by the Saudi Central Bank.

The Saudi riyal symbol was developed in three phases under a royal directive, with a committee composed of national authorities including the Saudi Central Bank, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Media, and the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization. An official guide was issued detailing the symbol’s design, usage, and related specifications.[7][8][9]

The Arabic letters “ر ي ا ل” that form the symbol.

According to the official statement, the first phase focused on ensuring that the symbol met the highest technical standards applied globally for currency symbols. Emphasis was placed on representing the Kingdom's national identity, blending tradition with modernity. The design adopted the name of the national currency, “Riyal”, using Arabic letters as a tribute to Arabic language and culture.[8][10]

The second phase involved technical evaluations, development, and precise reviews to ensure ease of implementation and usability in financial and commercial systems. The third phase culminated in the official approval of the symbol by the King and its public announcement.[8][10]

The geometric dimensions of the design were specified with precise standards for spacing and curves to define the symbol’s shape while preserving the Arabic letter forms. The letter rāʾ (ر) in “Riyal” intersects the symbol, forming a crossbar similar to that of most global currency symbols. Eight rules were established for using the symbol with numerical values, including that it should always be placed to the left of the number in all languages, with a space between the symbol and the number.[8][10]

Usage and implementation

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With the launch of the Saudi riyal symbol, the Saudi Central Bank released a usage guide along with three primary file formats for the symbol: SVG, PNG, and EPS.[11] The symbol was adopted for use across all fields and financial transactions involving the Saudi currency, including public texts and documents, banking services, trading platforms, economic reports and contracts, invoices and receipts, e-commerce applications and stores, and product price tags. The Ministry of Commerce mandated that the private sector across all economic activities use the symbol in public texts and documents as well as in the pricing of goods, services, and products wherever the currency value appears, in compliance with the standard formats issued by the Saudi Central Bank.[5][12]

Use on digital devices

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The Saudi riyal symbol is registered in the Unicode Standard under the name “SAUDI RIYAL SIGN”, at code point U+20C1 (⃁) in the Currency Symbols block.[13][14] It is the only digital symbol for the currency across all types of devices, including computers and mobile phones, and it differs from the Iranian rial symbol (U+FDFC ﷼ RIAL SIGN).[15]

Encoding Data
Encoding System Hexadecimal (Hex) Decimal (Dec)
Unicode U+20C1 8385
UTF-8 e2 83 81 226 131 129
Numeric Character Reference (NCR) ⃁ ⃁

Difference between the Saudi riyal and Iranian rial symbols

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The Saudi riyal symbol (U+20C1 ⃁ SAUDI RIYAL SIGN) and the Iranian rial symbol (U+FDFC ﷼ RIAL SIGN) in Unicode.

The Saudi riyal symbol (U+20C1 ⃁ SAUDI RIYAL SIGN) is often mistakenly confused with the Iranian rial symbol (U+FDFC ﷼ RIAL SIGN), because both represent currencies with the same name and are depicted using Arabic letters. However, they are different: the Iranian government has never officially issued a symbol for its currency. The existing symbol was created by the Iran National Standards Organization to standardize the appearance of the currency on typewriter systems and is not recognized nationally or internationally. The Supreme Council of Informatics of Iran [fa] submitted a request to include the symbol in the Unicode Standard in April 2001[16], which was approved. It appeared on digital devices for the first time in the official Unicode update of March 2002. It is considered a precomposed character, meaning it is not a single independent symbol but a combination of Arabic letters compressed into one Unicode character:(U+0631 ر ARABIC LETTER REH + U+06CC ی ARABIC LETTER FARSI YEH + U+0627 ا ARABIC LETTER ALEF + U+0644 ل ARABIC LETTER LAM = U+FDFC ﷼ RIAL SIGN)[17], which can decompose into ordinary text composed of letters, in contrast to the Saudi Riyal sign, which is a single independent symbol rather than a composition of multiple Unicode characters and therefore is not decomposable.[15]

Comparison of the two symbols (⃁ – ریال) in Unicode
Country Unicode name Symbol Code point Block Characteristics Date of release Unicode version Status Requesting authority
Saudi Arabia SAUDI RIYAL SIGN ⃁ U+20C1 Currency Symbols Suitable for all languages written from left-to-right or right-to-left 9 September 2025 17.0 Official (state-recognized) Saudi Central Bank
Independent character
Iran RIAL SIGN ریال U+FDFC Arabic Presentation Forms-A Suitable only for right-to-left languages 27 March 2002 3.2 Not official (for writing use) Supreme Council of Informatics of Iran (now the Supreme Council of Cyberspace)
Precomposed character

History of the implementation of the Saudi riyal symbol

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Submission of the proposal

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Several individuals, as well as the Saudi Central Bank, submitted different official proposals to the Unicode Consortium to encode the Saudi riyal symbol for use in digital systems and to include it in the Universal Coded Character Set (ISO/IEC 10646). Among these, the Saudi Central Bank’s proposal (L2/25-075), dated 7 March 2025, was adopted.[18]

The Script Encoding Working Group (SEW) recommended adding the symbol at the available code point (U+20C1) in the "Currency Symbols" block, under the name SAUDI RIYAL SIGN, as proposed in the Saudi Central Bank’s submission.[15] The proposal was subsequently discussed during the Consortium’s 183rd meeting, held between 22 and 24 April 2025, and was approved on the first day without changes to the specifications.[19]

Official release of the symbol

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  • The Saudi riyal symbol was first introduced in the Unicode 17.0 beta release on 20 May 2025. It was noted that the symbol might be discussed and possibly revised during the subsequent Unicode Technical Committee meeting 184, scheduled from 22 to 24 July 2025; however, no discussion took place, and it was not included in the agenda of the second meeting.[13][20]
  • The symbol was then officially included in the final release of Unicode 17.0 on 9 September 2025.[14]
  • A preliminary update of the symbol followed in October 2025 within the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) project. Initially, the symbol was classified as an alternate symbol rather than a primary symbol, because it is new and not yet widely supported in most fonts. As a result, its shape may not display for users whose devices lack fonts that support it. Over time, as the symbol becomes more widely adopted and included in modern global fonts, it is expected to be designated as a primary symbol.[21]

Usage Guidelines

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The Saudi Central Bank published eight main rules in its official guide to follow when writing the symbol.[11]

Official rules for using the Saudi riyal symbol.

The Eight Rules for Using the Symbol

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  1. Position: The symbol should always appear to the left of the numeric value in all languages.
  2. Spacing: Leave a space between the symbol and the numeric value.
  3. Proportion: Maintain the proportional shape of the symbol.
  4. Geometric structure: Preserve the geometric design of the symbol.
  5. Alignment: Match the height of the symbol with the text height.
  6. Direction: Align the symbol’s direction with the text direction.
  7. Clear space: Maintain a clear space equivalent to one-third of the symbol’s height around it.
  8. Color contrast: Ensure sufficient contrast between the symbol and background colors.
[edit]
  • Saudi Riyal Symbol Guidelines
  • Media related to Saudi riyal sign at Wikimedia Commons

References

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  1. ^ "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Approves Saudi Riyal Symbol". spa.gov.sa. Retrieved 2025-09-26.
  2. ^ Desk, News (2025-02-21). "Saudi Arabia unveils new riyal symbol to boost financial identity globally". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2025-09-29. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ "King Salman approves Saudi riyal symbol, reinforcing national financial identity and rich cultural heritage". Economy Middle East. Retrieved 2025-09-29.
  4. ^ a b "Custodian of Two Holy Mosques Approves Saudi Riyal Symbol". www.sama.gov.sa. Archived from the original on 2025-06-30. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  5. ^ a b c "Saudi riyal symbol: strategic step toward global financial standing". Arab News. 2025-03-08. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  6. ^ a b "Custodian of Two Holy Mosques Approves Saudi Riyal Symbol". Financial Post.
  7. ^ Writer, Staff (2025-04-21). "Saudi has a new symbol for its currency, the Riyal, but why?". Esquire Middle East. Retrieved 2025-09-29.
  8. ^ a b c d "FAQs about the Saudi riyal symbol". Saudi Central Bank.
  9. ^ "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Approves Saudi Riyal Symbol". english.aawsat.com. Retrieved 2025-09-29.
  10. ^ a b c "Saudi riyal symbol: A nod to history and reinforcement of identity". Arab News. 2025-03-15. Retrieved 2025-09-29.
  11. ^ a b Saudi Central Bank. "Saudi Riyal Symbol Guidelines" (PDF).
  12. ^ ""البنك المركزي" و"التجارة" يُلزِمان القطاع الخاص باستخدام رمز الريال في تسعير السلع والخدمات والمنتجات" ["Central Bank" and "Commerce" mandate the private sector to use the Riyal symbol in pricing goods, services, and products.]. جريدة الرياض.
  13. ^ a b Unicode. "Support for the New Saudi Riyal Currency Symbol". Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  14. ^ a b Ferro, Deanna. "Unicode 17.0 Release Announcement". Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  15. ^ a b c "SEW recommendation on encoding the SAUDI RIYAL SIGN" (PDF). Unicode.
  16. ^ "Arabic Ligature Rial" (PDF). Unicode.
  17. ^ "Chapter 9 – Unicode 16.0.0". unicode.org. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  18. ^ "UTC 183 Minutes". www.unicode.org. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  19. ^ "UTC 183 Minutes". www.unicode.org. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  20. ^ Unicode. "Unicode 17.0 Beta Review Open". Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  21. ^ Unicode. "Support for the New Saudi Riyal Currency Symbol". Retrieved 2025-09-28.

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