In the 18th and 19th centuries there was a symbol for the Russian ruble consisting of lower case Cyrillic letters — a rotated р on a у.

The idea was to reach the same level of recognition and therefore of influence as well-known currency signs such as $ (the US dollar), € (the euro), ¥ (the Chinese yuan or the Japanese yen) and £ (the Pound sterling).

In 2007, a group of Russian design bureaus and studios proposed to use ₽, the stroked Cyrillic letter Р to represent the ruble.

In November 2013, the Central Bank of Russia finally decided to adopt a national currency sign.

A currency symbol used in the Pokémon media franchise is visually similar to the Ruble sign but instead has two strokes (  ).