Thanks for the pointer, it helped - I read the javadoc but didn't "get it" the first time.
My issue is further compounded by the fact that the 3rd party spreadsheet control barfs on the escaped pattern (they must be doing their own escaping - I unescaped prior to setting, ugh) and more importantly, by the fact the user could enter any type of currency symbol in various positions in the user-specified pattern. Other problematic symbols could include: Antigua's "E.C. $", Bermuda's "Bd.$", Ecuador's "S/.
", Kenya's "Kshs.", Macau's "Ptc.", Panama's "B/.", Tanzania's "T.Shs." and a few (known) others... Too bad the Java (locale) currency processing doesn't take handle this automatically.
Anyway, thanks for the pointer, I got around my immediate issue and if I have to travel to Bermuda to fix any currency formatting issues they might have, well, then I guess I'll deal with that then. :-)