Greek Small Letter Stigma

Greek Small Letter Stigma at U+03DB is a Greek and Coptic character for the lowercase form of stigma, a historical Greek ligature that later served mainly as a numeral sign. In ordinary modern Greek writing it is not used as a letter, but in Greek numeral notation it represents the value 6. Its most common appearances are in editions of Greek texts, liturgical books, manuscript transcriptions, and scholarly writing that preserves traditional Greek numerals. For example, a chapter, regnal year, or list item may use ϛ where a Greek-style number six is intended, especially in older or classically styled material. The character is also relevant in paleography and the history of the Greek alphabet because stigma developed from a ligature of sigma and tau and is associated with earlier letterforms such as digamma in the numeral system. It should not be confused with the final sigma, which has a similar shape in some typefaces but is a normal modern Greek letter with a different sound and function.