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The currency of knuts, sickles and galleons in the Harry Potter books is a parody of the £sd system, with 29 knuts to a sickle and 17 sickles to a galleon. It serves as the currency of the Wizarding World, while pounds are still used by Muggles, the non-magical people. [28] [29]
The pound is the main unit of sterling, [4] [c] and the word pound is also used to refer to the British currency generally, [7] often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling. [4] Sterling is the world's oldest currency in continuous use since its inception. [8]
The sovereign is a British gold coin with a nominal value of one pound sterling (£1) and contains 0.2354 troy ounces (113.0 gr; 7.32 g) of pure gold.Struck since 1817, it was originally a circulating coin that was accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery.
A pennyweight (dwt) is a unit of mass equal to 24 grains, 1 ⁄ 20 of a troy ounce, 1 ⁄ 240 of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce [1] and exactly 1.55517384 grams. [2] It is abbreviated dwt, d standing for denarius – (an ancient Roman coin), and later used as the symbol of an old British penny (see £sd).
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in both the British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement.Various definitions have been used; the most common today is the international avoirdupois pound, which is legally defined as exactly 0.453 592 37 kilograms, and which is divided into 16 avoirdupois ounces. [1]
The English word "pound" derives from the Latin expression lībra pondō, in which lībra is a noun meaning 'pound' and pondō is an adverb meaning 'by weight'. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The currency's symbol is ' £ ' , a stylised form of the blackletter 'L' ( L {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {L}}} ) (from libra ), crossed to indicate abbreviation.
The old troy standard was set by King Offa's currency reform, and was in full use in 1284 (Assize of Weights and Measures, King Edward I), but was restricted to currency (the pound of pennies) until it was abolished in 1527. This pound was progressively replaced by a new pound, based on the weight of 120 silver dirhems of 48 grains. The new ...
The Cologne mark corresponded to about 234 grams. Like the German systems, the French poids de marc weight system considered one "Marc" equal to 8 troy ounces. [citation needed] Just as the pound of 12 troy ounces (373 g) lent its name to the pound unit of currency, the mark lent its name to the mark unit of currency.