Exchange Rate Quotations-Cont’d We shall adopt the following notation in quoting exchange rates Ina quote given as ZAR/USD=9.8565 for example, the correct interpretation is that the numerator currency on the left hand side is the currency of quotation and the denominator currency is the quoted currency. Thus, the above quote can be read as ‘ZAR per USD’, meaning the amount of ZAR required to purchase USD1. The International Standards Organization (ISO) sets standards on currency abbreviations. As a general guide, the abbreviation is the ISO two-digit country code plus a letter from the name of the currency, e.g. USD for the US dollar, GBP for the British pound, JPY for the Japanese yen etc.