EDIT Tugrik is the official currency of Mongolia, and this is it's symbol.

 82.82.134.225  eki 

EDIT Origin The word Tugrik appears to be derived from the Mongolian word for 'wheel'.

One Tugrik is divided into 100 mongos, but for these there appears to exist no separate typographic sign.

It is interesting to note that a country like Mongolia actually has it's own typographic currency symbol, considering that many countries with considerably larger and more significant economies do not.

Incidentally, the Mongolian script on this web-page is the not the official Mongolian script. Contemporary Mongolian uses a variant of Cyrilic letters (almost fully identical, except for a number of extra vowles to accommodate Mongolian sounds, and at least one consonant less than the Cyrilic alphabet as used in Russia).

There is, however, a revival movement for reestablishing the Mongolian script depicted on this page - which, derives from the Tibetan script.

 dietwaldclaus  eki 

EDIT More on the origin of Tugrik I would think it is Mongolian, as current Mongolian uses Cyrillic script in which the T actually looks like a Western T. However, the similarity to the Yen symbol is probably not accidental, as Japan has had considerable influence not only on recent Mongolian history, but also it's economy.

Interestingly enough, the symbol does NOT seem to appear on the bank notes of Mongolia, vide: http://www.banknotes.com/mn65.htm

Rather, the name of the currency is written in full (and should be pronounced more like tögrög, where the ö sounds rather like a guttural O than a German o-umlaut.)

Japanese bank notes do not show the yen sign either, but also write the name of the currency in full. This COULD be an indication of some common conceptual origin, BUT, the Israeli New Shekel also does not show the New Shekel sign on it.

I have searched the net, but could not find any indication as to when the Tugrik sign first appeared.

(from dietwaldclaus from the german edition)

 eki  dietwaldclaus