# Currency Amount (Swiss Apostrophe)

Key: `finance.currency.amount_apostrophe`

Swiss/Liechtenstein format using apostrophe for thousands separator and period for decimal. Supports both straight apostrophe (U+0027) and right single quotation mark (U+2019).

Page: <https://meridian.online/docs/projects/finetype/types/finance/currency/amount_apostrophe>

Samples: `CHF 1'234.56`, `1'234.56 CHF`, `CHF 10'000.00`, `-CHF 999.99`

## Background

### Origin

Wikipedia's article on decimal separators says that in Switzerland currency values use an apostrophe as the thousands separator along with a dot as the decimal separator, like 1'234'567.89.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator) Wikipedia's table of examples lists 1'234'567.89 for Switzerland (computing) and Liechtenstein.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator) Wikipedia's article on the apostrophe says that in Switzerland the apostrophe is used as a thousands separator alongside the fixed space in all four national languages.[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe)

The Swiss Federal Chancellery's Schreibweisungen, its rules for German-language official federal texts, appeared in a second, updated edition in 2013.[[3]](https://kr-geschaefte.zug.ch/dokumente/11187/3468-2-17179_Beilage2-Schreibweisungen-Bund.pdf) The Schreibweisungen require a decimal point instead of a decimal comma between the currency unit and its subunit in money amounts, as in Fr. 23.50.[[3]](https://kr-geschaefte.zug.ch/dokumente/11187/3468-2-17179_Beilage2-Schreibweisungen-Bund.pdf) The Schreibweisungen say the formerly customary grouping with an apostrophe should no longer be used, because it has to be undone for printing.[[3]](https://kr-geschaefte.zug.ch/dokumente/11187/3468-2-17179_Beilage2-Schreibweisungen-Bund.pdf) Read the apostrophe form as an everyday and software convention for Swiss amounts rather than the house style of official federal prose. (Meridian's view)

### Use

The Unicode code chart for General Punctuation notes that U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK is the preferred character to use for apostrophe.[[4]](https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf) The GNU C Library's de\_CH locale sets both its numeric and its monetary thousands separator to the curly right single quotation mark ’.[[5]](https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=localedata/locales/de_CH;hb=HEAD) The GNU C Library's de\_CH locale gives CHF as its currency symbol and a full stop as its monetary decimal point.[[5]](https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=localedata/locales/de_CH;hb=HEAD) CLDR 48.2, released on 2026-03-17, updated the group separator for number formatting to ' in fr-CH, consistent with other Swiss locales.[[6]](https://cldr.unicode.org/downloads/cldr-48)

Wikipedia's article on decimal separators says the apostrophe is also the most common thousands separator for Swiss non-currency values, like 1'234'567,89.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator) An apostrophe in the digits does not settle the decimal mark, so check whether a file ends its numbers with a full stop or a comma before you parse it. (Meridian's view) The Schreibweisungen write a dash in place of the two zeros after the decimal point, as in Fr. 20.–, and in place of the single zero before it, as in Fr. –.15.[[3]](https://kr-geschaefte.zug.ch/dokumente/11187/3468-2-17179_Beilage2-Schreibweisungen-Bund.pdf) When cleaning Swiss amounts, strip the currency code and both apostrophe characters, look out for dashes standing in for zeros, and only then cast to a decimal, keeping two decimal places for francs and centimes. (Meridian's view)

## Sources

1. [Decimal separator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator) — secondary source
2. [Apostrophe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe) — secondary source
3. [Schreibweisungen: Weisungen der Bundeskanzlei zur Schreibung und zu Formulierungen in den deutschsprachigen amtlichen Texten des Bundes](https://kr-geschaefte.zug.ch/dokumente/11187/3468-2-17179_Beilage2-Schreibweisungen-Bund.pdf) — standard
4. [General Punctuation](https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf) — standard
5. [sourceware.org Git - glibc.git/blob - localedata/locales/de\_CH](https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=localedata/locales/de_CH;hb=HEAD) — documentation
6. [CLDR 48 Release Note](https://cldr.unicode.org/downloads/cldr-48) — documentation