Editing Digamma (section)

==Glyph confusion==
[[File:Greek capital numerals 01.svg|thumb|right|Example of a nineteenth-century font using S-shaped capital Stigma (first row) and G-shaped capital Koppa (second row).]]
[[File:Greek capital numerals 02.svg|thumb|right|Example of a nineteenth-century font using turned-lamedh-shaped capital Koppa and G-shaped capital Stigma.]]
[[File:Greek Stigma and Koppa font design.svg|thumb|right|Stigma and Koppa in modern fonts.]]

Throughout much of its history, the shape of digamma/stigma has often been very similar to that of other symbols, with which it can easily be confused. In ancient papyri, the cursive C-shaped form of numeric digamma is often indistinguishable from the C-shaped ("lunate") form that was then the common form of [[sigma]]. The similarity is still found today, since both the modern stigma (ϛ) and modern final sigma (ς) look identical or almost identical in most fonts; both are historically continuations of their ancient C-shaped forms with the addition of the same downward flourish. If the two characters are distinguished in print, the top loop of stigma tends to be somewhat larger and to extend farther to the right than that of final sigma. The two characters are, however, always distinguishable from the context in modern usage, both in numeric notation and in text: the final form of sigma never occurs in numerals (the number 200 being always written with the medial sigma, σ), and in normal Greek text the sequence "στ" can never occur word-finally.

The medieval s-like shape of digamma (<span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Digamma cursive 05.svg|x16px]]</span>) has the same shape as a contemporary abbreviation for {{lang|el|καὶ}} ("and").

Yet another case of glyph confusion exists in the printed uppercase forms, this time between stigma and the other numeral, [[koppa (letter)|koppa]] (90). In ancient and medieval handwriting, koppa developed from <span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Koppa normal.svg|x16px]]</span> through <span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Koppa cursive 01.svg|x16px]]</span>, <span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Koppa cursive 02.svg|x16px]]</span>, <span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Koppa cursive 03.svg|x16px]]</span> to <span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Koppa cursive 04.svg|x16px]]</span>. The uppercase forms <span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Koppa-Stigma uc.svg|x16px]]</span> and <span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Koppa-Stigma uc 2.svg|x16px]]</span> can represent either koppa or stigma. Frequent confusion between these two values in contemporary printing was already noted by some commentators in the eighteenth century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Adelung|first=Johann Christoph|title=Neues Lehrgebäude der Diplomatik, Vol.2|place=Erfurt|year=1761|page=137f}}</ref> The ambiguity continues in modern fonts, many of which continue to have glyph similar to <span style="background-color: white;">[[File:Greek Koppa-Stigma uc.svg|x16px]]</span> for either koppa or stigma.