Pound (currency)

Pound is the name of various units of currency. It is used in some countries today and previously was used in many others. 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' (${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {L}}}$) (from libra), crossed to indicate abbreviation.^[3]

The term was adopted in England from the weight^[a] of silver used to make 240 pennies,^[6] and eventually spread to British colonies all over the world. While silver pennies were produced seven centuries earlier, the first pound coin was minted under Henry VII in 1489.^[5]

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