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The term originates from libra, the largest unit of the Carolingian monetary system used in Western Europe and elsewhere from the 8th to the 20th century. [2] The Carolingian system is the origin of the French livre tournois (predecessor of the franc ), the Italian lira, and the pound unit of sterling and related currencies.
The livre was established by Charlemagne as a unit of account equal to one pound of silver. [citation needed] It was subdivided into 20 sous (also sols), each of 12 deniers.[citation needed] The word livre came from the Latin word libra, a Roman unit of weight and still the name of a pound in modern French, and the denier comes from the Roman denarius.
The modern dollar and peso symbols originated from the mark employed to denote the Spanish dollar, [2] whereas the pound and lira symbols evolved from the letter L (written until the seventeenth century in blackletter type as ) standing for libra, a Roman pound of silver. [3]
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Carolingian pound (Latin: libra), a unit of weight and coinage, ancestor of German: Pfund, French: livre, Spanish: peso, Lira (Italian: lira, Turkish: lira) as well as the English word pound. Libra (weight), an ancient Roman unit of weight, basis for the Carolingian pound; Local exchange trading system: many British LETS use(d) the term "pound"
An 836-pound “cursed” emerald worth nearly $1 billion will be returned to Brazil after 15 years under lock and key in Los Angeles. The 180,000-carat Bahia Emerald was smuggled out of the South ...