Pound sign
Encyclopedia
The pound sign is the symbol for the pound sterling
—the currency
of the United Kingdom
(UK). The same symbol is (or was) used for similarly named currencies in some other countries and territories, such as the Irish pound
, Gibraltar pound
, Australian pound
and the Italian lira
. Several countries, including Lebanon
and Egypt
, call their currency "the pound" but do not use the £ symbol.
The symbol derives from a capital "L", representing libra, the basic unit of weight in the Roman Empire
, which in turn is derived from the Latin
name for scales
or a balance. The pound became an English
unit of weight and was so named because it originally had the value of one tower pound (~334 g) of fine (pure) silver
.
The pound sign is placed before the number (i.e. "£12,000"), and separated
from the following digits by no space or only a thin space.
The symbol ‹₤› was known as the lira sign in Italy
, prior to the adoption of the euro
. It was used as an alternative to the more usual L to show prices in lire
.
code point . It has a HTML
entity reference of £ and has an XML decimal entity reference of £.
The lira sign has Unicode code point , decimal entity reference ₤. Unicode notes that this is not widely used, and the preferred sign for lira is the pound sign.
there was no unique accepted standard for entering, displaying, printing, or storing the £ sign in the UK computer industry. On personal computers prior to the PC the "#" key was often used; sometimes it was displayed on screen as "#", but many printers could be set up to print "£" where "#" was sent to the printer by an application program. Keying in, storing, displaying, and printing the sign often required special setup. The "#" sign is referred to as the "hash symbol" in the UK, but it is sometimes called the "pound sign" in non-Sterling countries (though in reference to the unit of weight, not the unit of currency). It is also known as the number symbol or key.
The BBC Micro
used a variant of ASCII
that replaced the backtick ("`", character 96, hex 60) with the pound sign (ISO/IEC 8859
had not yet been standardised, and it was advantageous to have commonly-used characters available in the lower, 7-bit ASCII table), denoted as CHR$96 or (hex) CHR$&60. Since the BBC Micro used a Teletext
mode as standard, this means that the pound sign is in the 7-bit ASCII variant used on Teletext systems such as Ceefax
, ORACLE
and Teletext Ltd too.
The PC UK keyboard layout has the "£" symbol on the 3 number key and is typed using Shift+3. On a US-International keyboard, the "£" can be entered using Shift+AltGr+4 or Shift+Ctrl+Alt+4. Under Microsoft Windows
it can also be generated through the Alt keycodes 0163 and 156, and in MS-DOS
by Alt-156.
The symbol "£" is in the MacRoman character set and can be generated on most non-UK Mac OS
keyboard layouts which do not have a dedicated key for it, typically through Option
+3. On UK Apple Mac keyboards, this is reversed, with the "£" symbol on the number 3 key, typed using Shift+3, and the number sign
("#") generated by Option+3.
The Compose key
sequence is 'L' and '-'.
On Latin-alphabet typewriters
lacking a "£" symbol type element, a reasonable approximation can be made by typing an upper-case "L", backspacing, then typing a lower-case "f" over it.
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
—the currency
Currency
In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(UK). The same symbol is (or was) used for similarly named currencies in some other countries and territories, such as the Irish pound
Irish pound
The Irish pound was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the usual notation was the prefix £...
, Gibraltar pound
Gibraltar pound
The Gibraltar pound is the currency of Gibraltar. It is exchangeable with the UK pound sterling at par value.-History:...
, Australian pound
Australian pound
The pound was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 13 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. It was subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence.- Earlier Australian currencies :...
and the Italian lira
Lira
Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City and Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver. The libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire...
. Several countries, including Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, call their currency "the pound" but do not use the £ symbol.
The symbol derives from a capital "L", representing libra, the basic unit of weight in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, which in turn is derived from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
name for scales
Weighing scale
A weighing scale is a measuring instrument for determining the weight or mass of an object. A spring scale measures weight by the distance a spring deflects under its load...
or a balance. The pound became an English
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
unit of weight and was so named because it originally had the value of one tower pound (~334 g) of fine (pure) silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
.
The pound sign is placed before the number (i.e. "£12,000"), and separated
Space (punctuation)
In writing, a space is a blank area devoid of content, serving to separate words, letters, numbers, and punctuation. Conventions for interword and intersentence spaces vary among languages, and in some cases the spacing rules are quite complex....
from the following digits by no space or only a thin space.
The symbol ‹₤› was known as the lira sign in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, prior to the adoption of the euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
. It was used as an alternative to the more usual L to show prices in lire
Italian lira
The lira was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. Between 1999 and 2002, the Italian lira was officially a “national subunit” of the euro...
.
Codepoints
The pound sign has UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
code point . It has a HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
entity reference of £ and has an XML decimal entity reference of £.
The lira sign has Unicode code point , decimal entity reference ₤. Unicode notes that this is not widely used, and the preferred sign for lira is the pound sign.
Entry methods
Prior to the introduction of the IBM PCIBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
there was no unique accepted standard for entering, displaying, printing, or storing the £ sign in the UK computer industry. On personal computers prior to the PC the "#" key was often used; sometimes it was displayed on screen as "#", but many printers could be set up to print "£" where "#" was sent to the printer by an application program. Keying in, storing, displaying, and printing the sign often required special setup. The "#" sign is referred to as the "hash symbol" in the UK, but it is sometimes called the "pound sign" in non-Sterling countries (though in reference to the unit of weight, not the unit of currency). It is also known as the number symbol or key.
The BBC Micro
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
used a variant of ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
that replaced the backtick ("`", character 96, hex 60) with the pound sign (ISO/IEC 8859
ISO/IEC 8859
ISO/IEC 8859 is a joint ISO and IEC series of standards for 8-bit character encodings. The series of standards consists of numbered parts, such as ISO/IEC 8859-1, ISO/IEC 8859-2, etc. There are 15 parts, excluding the abandoned ISO/IEC 8859-12...
had not yet been standardised, and it was advantageous to have commonly-used characters available in the lower, 7-bit ASCII table), denoted as CHR$96 or (hex) CHR$&60. Since the BBC Micro used a Teletext
Teletext
Teletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
mode as standard, this means that the pound sign is in the 7-bit ASCII variant used on Teletext systems such as Ceefax
Ceefax
Ceefax is the BBC's teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, started in 1974 and will run until April 2012 for Pages from Ceefax, while the actual interactive service will run until 24 October 2012, in-line with the digital switchover.-History:During the late 60s, engineer...
, ORACLE
ORACLE (teletext)
ORACLE was a commercial teletext service first broadcast on ITV in 1974 and later on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, finally ending on both channels at 23:59 GMT on 31 December 1992....
and Teletext Ltd too.
The PC UK keyboard layout has the "£" symbol on the 3 number key and is typed using Shift+3. On a US-International keyboard, the "£" can be entered using Shift+AltGr+4 or Shift+Ctrl+Alt+4. Under Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
it can also be generated through the Alt keycodes 0163 and 156, and in MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
by Alt-156.
The symbol "£" is in the MacRoman character set and can be generated on most non-UK Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
keyboard layouts which do not have a dedicated key for it, typically through Option
Option key
The Option key is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. There are two option keys on modern Mac desktop and notebook keyboards, one on each side of the space bar....
+3. On UK Apple Mac keyboards, this is reversed, with the "£" symbol on the number 3 key, typed using Shift+3, and the number sign
Number sign
Number sign is a name for the symbol #, which is used for a variety of purposes including, in some countries, the designation of a number...
("#") generated by Option+3.
The Compose key
Compose key
A compose key, available on some computer keyboards, is a special kind of modifier key designated to signal the software to interpret the following sequence of two keystrokes as a combination in order to produce a character not found directly on the keyboard...
sequence is 'L' and '-'.
On Latin-alphabet typewriters
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
lacking a "£" symbol type element, a reasonable approximation can be made by typing an upper-case "L", backspacing, then typing a lower-case "f" over it.