Japanese Yen country flag

Japanese Yen

JPY

¥
Russian Ruble country flag

Russian Ruble

RUB

Japanese Yen
The yen (Japanese: 円; symbol: ¥; code: JPY) is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (USD) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the USD and the euro. The New Currency Act of 1871 introduced Japan's modern currency system, with the yen defined as 1.5 g (0.048 troy ounces) of gold, or 24.26 g (0.780 troy ounces) of silver, and divided decimally into 100 sen or 1,000 rin. The yen replaced the previous Tokugawa coinage as well as the various hansatsu paper currencies issued by feudal han (fiefs). The Bank of Japan was founded in 1882 and given a monopoly on controlling the money supply. Following World War II, the yen lost much of its pre-war value as Japan faced a debt crisis and hyperinflation. Under the Bretton Woods system, the yen was pegged to the USD alongside other major currencies. After this system was abandoned in 1971 with the Nixon shock, the short-lived Smithsonian Agreement temporarily reinstated a fixed exchange rate. However, since the end of that system in February 1973, the yen has been a floating currency. The Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan have sometimes intervened in the currency market in recent years, to try to slow down exchange rate movements. There were intermittent interventions from 1998 to 2003 and from 2010 to 2011 to curb excessive and speculative appreciation of the yen, and again in 2022 and 2024 to slow down speculative selling of the currency. The first two interventions were coordinated with respective countries, and the IMF has repeatedly stated that Japan is "committed to a flexible exchange rate".
Russian Ruble
The ruble (or rouble) (Russian: рубль, romanized: rublʹ, [ˈrublʲ] ; symbol: ₽; ISO code: RUB) is the official currency of the Russian Federation. Banknotes and coins are issued by the Central Bank of Russia, which is Russia's monetary authority independent of all other government bodies. Each ruble is technically subdivided into 100 kopeyka (kopecks), but kopeck-denominated coins are now rarely used due to inflation. It is the second-oldest currency in continuous use, after British sterling. It was also the first decimal currency. The ruble was the currency of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union, where it was known as the Soviet ruble (code: SUR, 810). Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet ruble was replaced in Russia with the Russian ruble (code: RUR, 810) at par in the following year. The Russian ruble continued to be used in 11 post-Soviet states, forming a "ruble zone" until 1993. In 1998, the ruble was redenominated (code: RUB, 643) shortly before the 1998 financial crisis, at a rate of 1000 RUR = 1 RUB. The ruble is a free-floating currency, and in 2023, the digital ruble was introduced. The Russian ruble is also used as a de facto legal tender in Baikonur, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.