String.Format and log.DebugFormat Currency

I would guess it has something to do with your regional settings.

Try something like this:

System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo(<your culture setting>);
log.DebugFormat("Balance: {0:c} ", balance);

      

        
        
        
      

    

If that doesn't work, you can always use the debugger to check the value:

System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.NumberFormat;

Specifically check the value:

ansiCurrencySymbol

      

        
        
        
      

    

To make sure it is set to the $ symbol.

You may also be interested in this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_%28typography%29

This explains what character you are getting.

In particular:

The currency sign (¤) is a character used to denote a currency, when the symbol for a particular currency is unavailable. 

It is particularly common in place of symbols, such as that of the Colón (₡), which are absent from most character sets and fonts. 

It can be described as a circle the size of a lowercase character with four short radiating arms at 45° (NE), 135° (NW), 225°, (SW) and 315° (SE). It is slightly raised over the baseline.

It is represented in Unicode, as CURRENCY SIGN (U+00A4). In HTML, the character entity reference ¤ or numeric character reference ¤ may be used.