Keyboards are ultimately a trade-off between the number of letters and numbers in common use in the language being supported, and the size of human hands and fingertips.
Ideally, you want the most-commonly used letters, numbers, and symbols to be immediately visible and accessible; but not have so many keys that the keyboard is huge, which would slow down typing. (Moving your fingers is fast; moving your whole arms is not.)
Over time, and thanks in no small part to the early IBM PC and AT designs, keyboards have become standardized at either 84 or — if a keypad is included — 101 keys, because that’s about how many keys normal-sized human hands/fingers can accommodate, without excessive arm motion.
In standard PC keyboards, the keys default to commonly-used letters, numbers, and symbols, in whatever language is being supported. Shift+key reveals a second level of generally less-commonly-used letters, numbers, and symbols. Ctrl, Alt, Fn, and other keys and combinations, are used for increasingly uncommon letters, numbers, and symbols.
The cent and degree sign simply aren’t used frequently enough to make it to the top level of most general-purpose, consumer keyboards. However, those symbols — and many others — are still supported; although you have to type a combination of keys to produce them.
The key combinations depend on the software you’re using; the Help documentation will tell you how to type them. For example, here’s How To Insert the Degree Symbol in Word.
Another example: I’m typing this in an HTML editor, so I’ll type (without the spaces) & # 1 7 6 ; to produce a degree symbol: °. And & # 1 6 2 ; to produce a ¢.
If those extra keystrokes are a problem, you can buy custom keyboards with whatever top-level keys you want.
More simply (and cheaply), you can use key-remapper software (examples) to convert existing top-level keys to instead produce whatever letter, number, or symbol you wish.
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You can also have most of those characters easily (without having to remember keystrokes combinations) by simply setting up your keyboards as a US-International keyboard. Here’s more info: https://www.starr.net/is/type/intlchart.html. Unicomp keyboards can be had in this layout. I’ve been using it for years. Beats using *typed* combinations all day long!
Thanks, Henry.
Microsoft posted easy-to-follow instructions for changing the keyboard settings (eg to International) for Win7 and earlier:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/306560/how-to-use-the-united-states-international-keyboard-layout-in-windows
The process also was pretty easy in early versions of Win10.
But none of the old how-tos I’ve found work in the current (Fall 2018) Win10. MS has moved the settings somewhere, and I haven’t yet found them. Hmmm. They have to be in there somewhere…
Or simply use Alt Codes.