Pound sign
£
The
pound sign ("
₤" or later more commonly in the UK "
£") is the symbol for the
pound sterling, the currency of the
United Kingdom (UK), and for some
other currencies of the same name in other countries. Rarely,
L is used instead. Both symbols derive from
libra, the basic Roman unit of weight (about 0.329 kg), in turn derived from the
Latin word for
scales or balance. The pound became a British Imperial unit of weight, and the pound currency unit was so named because it was originally the value of one pound (weight) of
sterling silver.
The
ISO 4217 currency code is
GBP (from the
ISO 3166-1 country code for the UK and the initial letter of
pound). Occasionally the abbreviation UKP is also seen.
The pound sign, like the
dollar sign ("$"), is usually placed before the number (i.e. "£12,000" and not "12,000£"), and is usually not
separated from the following number, or is separated only by a thin
space.
The symbol "
₤" is also known as the
lira sign. In
Italy, prior to the adoption of the
euro, the symbol was used as an alternative to the more usual
L to indicate prices in
lira (but always with double horizontal lines).
The symbol "£" has
Unicode code point U+00A3 (inherited from
Latin-1)[
1]. The Unicode code for the symbol "₤" is 20A4.
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Currency sign
