Does the dollar sign come before of after the amount?

Answer 1

Dollar signs in the U.S. are normally written before an amount, and the cents sign after an amount. In some parts of the world (for ex. Québec) the dollar sign is written afterwards, however.

U.S. standard practice is to use a $ sign mostly for amounts of at least one dollar, and ¢ signs for lesser amounts. However there are many common mistakes that cause much confusion.

Most importantly, amounts with a cents sign should NEVER be written with a decimal point UNLESS the total amount is less than a whole cent. You can often see what's called "grocery store arithmetic" where someone without a lot of training has written a price as "0.59¢". That's not 59 cents - it means 59/100 of a penny! The amount should be written as either:

59¢ (no decimal point) or

$0.59 (the decimal point indicates fractions of a dollar)

Sometimes you also see prices written with both $ and ¢ signs; for ex. "$3.15¢" But like the grocery store arithmetic example, the dollar sign and decimal point mean the the "15" represents fractions of a dollar - i.e. 15 cents, so the extra cents sign is meaningless and shouldn't be written.

Answer 2

before