stroke without a crossbar, and a shorter horizontal top stroke. This numeral is often written as a plain vertical line without an ear at the top; this form is easily confused with a capital I, a lower-case L, and a vertical bar |. The numeral 2: In the U.S., Germany and Austria, a curly version used to be taught and is still used by many in handwriting. This two can be confused with a capital script Q, or the letter Z. It appears as ੨. The numeral 3: This numeral is sometimes written with a flat top, similar to the character Ʒ (ezh). This form is sometimes used to prevent people from fraudulently changing a three into an eight (but introduces the potential for confusion with ezh or with cursive Z). It is often written with a combination of two reversed or turned small letter "c"-like curves, similar to the Cyrillic character З (ze) or a reversed or turned Latin letter epsilon (ɛ), without the flat top. The numeral 4: Some people leave the top "open": all the lines are either vertical or horizontal, as in a seven-segment display. This makes it easier to distinguish from the numeral 9. Whether the horizontal bar terminates at or crosses the right vertical bar is insignificant in the West, but to be distinguished from certain Chinese characters (particularly 丩), it must cross. The numeral 5: In Taiwan, the left vertical bar is extended upwards as a long stem. If this is slanted, the overall figure may more closely resemble an uppercase Y. If casually written it can be confused with the letter S. The numeral 6: Can be confused with a letter capital G, or the lowercase b, or the nine if inverted. In situations where the number 6 may appear at various angles (such as on billiard balls, some styles of playing cards and dice), it can be underlined (appearing as 6) or followed by a full stop (appearing as 6.) to indicate the proper viewing angle to disambiguate between 6 and 9; a 9 may or may not appear with similar underlining or full stop (as 9 or 9.). It can also be written with a straight line rather than a curly line on top, appearing as b. The numeral 7: The traditional form found in copperplate penmanship begins with a serif at the upper left and has a wavy horizontal