Alphabetic code

The alphabetic code is based on another ISO standard, ISO 3166, which lists the codes for country names. The first two letters of the ISO 4217 three-letter code are the same as the code for the country name, and where possible the third letter corresponds to the first letter of the currency name.

For example:

The US dollar is represented as USD - the US coming from the ISO 3166 country code and the D for dollar. The Swiss franc is represented by CHF - the CH being the code for Switzerland in the ISO 3166 code and F for franc.

Numeric code

The three-digit numeric code is useful when currency codes need to be understood in countries that do not use Latin scripts and for computerised systems. Where possible the 3 digit numeric code is the same as the numeric country code.

For currencies having minor units, ISO 4217:2008 also shows the relationship between the minor unit and the currency itself (i.e. whether it divides into 100 or 1000).