It depends on the symbol. The pound symbol was a stylized "L" for libra (a Roman unit of weight similar to a pound). The dollar sign is uncertain but might have been a ligature of PS for "peso".

More recent symbols often owe their form to technological convenience — reproducibility on a press or typewriter. The yen symbol, for example, could be typed on a typewriter with a Y, the backspace, and an equal sign. The same goes for the won symbol, except it uses a W. Hyphens and slashes are other typographical symbols that have been combined with letters to form currency symbols.

More recently, currency symbols like the euro and the rupee (₹) have been deliberately designed by official institutions.