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Just discovered the "asterism" today:

⁂

Super cool. I had never heard of it or seen it before. Wikipedia has more about it.

What other typographic symbols are out there that were never all that popular or have fallen out of favor? What were they used for?

I placed in two that I know as a community wiki; I encourage others to build out a list.

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    pouring over unicode tables will reveal a cornucopia of hidden type symbols, virtually most of which i didn't know existed, let alone we could use
    – albert
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 8:52

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Asterism ⁂
(Unicode character U+2042 and HTML symbol ⁂ as well as Alt + 8258 on Windows)

Used to 'indicate minor breaks in text,' call attention to a passage, or to separate sub-chapters in a book.

Currency Symbol ¤
(Unicode character U+00A4 and HTML symbol ¤ or ¤ as well as Alt + 0164 on Windows)

Used to denote a currency when the symbol for the particular currency is unavailable.

Interrobang ‽
(Unicode character U+203D and HTML symbol ‽ as well as Alt + 8253 on Windows)

Used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark … and the exclamation mark.

Sound Recording Copyright Symbol ℗
(Unicode character U+2117 and HTML symbol ℗)

The copyright symbol used to provide notice of copyright in a sound recording (phonogram) embodied in a phonorecord (LPs, audiotapes, cassettes, compact discs, etc.)

Commercial Minus Sign ⁒
(Unicode character U+2052 and HTML symbol ⁒)

The commercial minus sign was and is widely used in bookkeeping to indicate a minus sign. On typewriters a ./. was written instead.

to be continued … ;)

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    I want to know where you found those on your keyboard.
    – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 22:16
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    I don't think "interrobang" is nearly extinct. I would expect the usage of "?!" or "!?" to be quite common, and, until now, considered the pair of glyphs as the intended meaning of the word instead of just a typographical representation. Now, the actual interrobang glyph "‽" as explained by Wikipedia... certainly rare. Neither of them I'd say would be "going extinct", as I don't expect the usage of Unicode standards to stop anytime soon.
    – JayC
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 22:18
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    @JayC - I've never seen the interrobang glyph in the wild before. And if you read into it, it was never really mainstream anyways, but certainly an interesting footnote to typographic history :)
    – Brendan
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 23:00
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    @LaurenIpsum Ctrl + C :P
    – Brendan
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 23:01
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    ::rimshot:: No seriously... did you just copy them from the Wiki page, or is there some mysterious Vulcan nerve pinch you do on the keyboard to generate them?
    – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
    Commented Mar 8, 2013 at 0:05

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