This information isn't as impractical as it used to be. Specialist typefaces are coming down in price. Apothecaries may yet demand symbol fonts of their own. A dram is 3 scruples. The new character for the Euro is within reach of the scruple symbol, turned upside-down.
People still seem to want new designs, thank heavens.
Printed travel information uses typefaces with symbols for post offices, airports, and wheelchair access. Many of them use computers. Most of us can manage perfectly well with what we've got. Hundred years ago, however, somebody could have asked this question and got the same answer. Back then, the world already had Caslon and Garamond, Baskerville and Bodoni.