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Sterling (ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. [3] 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]
The pound sign (£) is the symbol for the pound unit of sterling – the currency of the United Kingdom and its associated Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories and previously of Great Britain and of the Kingdom of England.
Currency and Bank Notes Act 1954: UK Extended the Bank Notes Act 1833 to make Bank of England notes under £5 in value legal tender; the act also applied to Scotland, making English 10/– and £1 legal tender for the first time. Bank of England withdrew low-denomination notes in 1969 and 1988, removing legal tender from Scotland. 2008 Banking ...
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.
Such a unit of a thousandth of a pound would have also been similar in value to the farthing coin (worth 1 ⁄ 960 of a pound). By the time British currency was decimalised in 1971, the farthing had been demonetised eleven years prior, in part due to having its value eroded by inflation; thus, the mil was no longer necessary.
The origin of £/, s, and d were the Latin terms Libra, meaning a pound weight (with the £ sign developing as an elaborate L), solidus (pl. solidi), 20 of which made up one Libra, and denarius (pl. denarii), 240 of which made up one Libra with 12 being equal to one solidus. These terms and divisions of currency were in use from the 7th century.
Saint Helenian pound (parity with pound sterling) (US$ accepted in Ascension Island) Government of Saint Helena British Indian Ocean Territory; United States dollar (de facto) [3] [4] Sterling (de jure) [5] [6] [7] US Federal Reserve System British Virgin Islands Turks and Caicos Islands; United States dollar
The British pound sterling and Irish pound were among the last to be decimalised, on 15 February 1971. In places where £sd was used, there were several approaches to decimalisation: The pound remained the base unit (in Malta, using the Maltese name "lira"), but was subdivided into new fractional units of 1 ⁄ 100 of a pound.