What are minor units in ISO 4217?

Minor units are the number of decimal places a currency uses. Most currencies use 2 (cents), some use 0 (such as the Japanese yen) and a few Gulf dinars use 3. Payment systems use this to store amounts as integers.

Why do currencies have both a letter code and a number?

The three-letter code (such as USD) is human-readable, while the three-digit numeric code is script-independent and useful in datasets where letters could be ambiguous. Both are defined by ISO 4217.

Why does the Japanese yen have 0 minor units?

The yen has no commonly used sub-unit, so its minor-unit count is 0 and amounts are whole numbers. Payment systems must store ¥1000 as 1000, not 100000, which is why knowing the minor units matters.

How does the first letter of a currency code work?

ISO 4217 alphabetic codes are usually the two-letter country code plus the first letter of the currency name — for example US + Dollar = USD, GB + Pound = GBP. This makes most codes easy to recognise.

Which currencies use 3 decimal places?

A few Gulf currencies such as the Bahraini dinar (BHD), Kuwaiti dinar (KWD) and Omani rial (OMR) divide into 1000 fils, so they have 3 minor units rather than the usual 2.

Is anything uploaded when I search?

No. The currency list is bundled with the page and all filtering runs locally in your browser.

ISO Currency Codes Reference

ISO 4217 currency codes

Look up any currency by its ISO 4217 three-letter code, numeric code or name. This standard is essential for payments, invoicing, accounting and FX systems, where the code and decimal precision must be exactly right to avoid mis-stated amounts.

How it works

The currency list ships with the page, so every lookup is instant and runs locally. Type a code, name or number and the table filters to matching rows. Each row shows the alphabetic code, numeric code, currency name and minor units — the number of decimal places, which payment processors use to store amounts as integers.

Code	Numeric	Minor units	Smallest unit
USD	840	2	cent
EUR	978	2	cent
JPY	392	0	(none)
KWD	414	3	fils

Example

Searching JPY shows numeric 392 and 0 minor units, so ¥1500 is stored as the integer 1500. Searching USD shows 2 minor units, so $15.00 is stored as 1500 cents. Using the correct minor-unit count prevents amounts being off by a factor of 100.

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