U+20AA · Currency symbol
New Sheqel Sign Symbol ₪
₪ is new sheqel sign, U+20AA. Unicode also records it as “shekel”. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Currency symbol.
Also known as
- shekel
What Unicode says about ₪
Israel
— annotation from the Unicode Standard, NamesList.txt
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+20AA | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ₪ | |
| HTML decimal | ₪ | |
| CSS | \20AA | |
| JavaScript | \u{20AA} | |
| Python | \U000020AA | |
| Java / C# | \u20AA | |
| Rust | \u{20aa} | |
| Swift | \u{20AA} | |
| PHP | \u{20AA} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%82%AA | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 82 AA | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 20AA | |
| Base64 | 4oKq | |
| Decimal | 8362 | |
| Category | Currency symbol (Sc) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 1.1 | |
Will ₪ survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. Yes. ₪ is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
- Legacy encodings. ₪ is Unicode-only — it has no Latin-1 equivalent, so a system stuck on an 8-bit encoding cannot represent it.
- Size. 3 bytes in UTF-8. Character-limited fields — SMS, bios, some form validators — usually count bytes, not characters.
Nearby in Currency Symbols
Currencies that were not already in Latin-1. The block grows as economies adopt new signs: the euro arrived in 1998, the Indian rupee in 2010, the Saudi riyal in 2025.
How to type ₪
| Windows | Type 20AA then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “new sheqel sign” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 20aa, press Enter |
| HTML | ₪ |
About Unicode’s Currency symbol category
Unicode classifies this as a currency symbol. Spreadsheets and number formatters recognise the category, which is why a cell formatted as currency can display it without being told it is text.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I type the ₪ new sheqel sign symbol?
- On Windows, type 20AA and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 20aa. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ₪?
- New Sheqel Sign is U+20AA. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is ₪?
- New Sheqel Sign is filed under Currency symbol in the Currency Symbols block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode classifies this as a currency symbol. Spreadsheets and number formatters recognise the category, which is why a cell formatted as currency can display it without being told it is text.