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This may just have to do with keyboard mapping and code pages (I believe).
Here in Denmark AE "smushed" together is an actual letter - number 27 in
the 29 character alphabet. When I worked with a mainframe and a green
screen here in Denmark, I would see this "AE" in a document originating in
America which contained the hash-sign or number sign (even called the pound
sign on some voice mails). Thus, a document that talked about number 427,
or #427, would appear as Æ427 (AE 427 for those who cannot read my "Æ"
symbol).
Does this clarify anything for your friend? Perhaps the person just
italicized the character for some style reason in the original document and
the italicizing has no other importance.
On code pages (or is it ASCII I am thinking of??) A-Z and 0-9 match pretty
much as far as I understand, but when you start moving to special
characters there are not enough slots to give all characters a unique
identifier. The hash/number sign shares this AE slot, and the same problem
occurs with left and right curly brackets, the American cent sign, the
dollar sign, etc. - all appearing as the "funny Danish characters". I
recall a Swedish software engineer once taking a Swedish keyboard (similar
problems) to America to prove to developers over there that he was not a
raving lunatic when he talked about the differences!!
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