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Originally Posted by HarryT
A serious question: why do so many people write ".99c" when they actually mean "99c"?
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That still doesn't explain why they write ".99c" when they mean "99c". The "c" symbol clearly specifies that it's money, does it not?
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My guess is that it's peculiar to the US because one cent has
always been .01 dollar. Since $.99 and 99¢ are equivalent and both are seen interchangeably on signs in shops, it's easy for Americans to get confused and add the extra decimal point if we're not thinking about it carefully. I've even seen professionally prepared sales flyers that make the mistake.
The English never got in the habit of writing £.99 instead of 99p because until relatively recently, 99 pence
wasn't £.99, it was 8s 3d.