pound sterling

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Encyclopædia Britannica Article

the basic monetary unit of Great Britain, divided (since 1971) decimally into 100 new pence. The term is derived from the fact that, about 775, silver coins known as “sterlings” were issued in the Saxon kingdoms, 240 of them being minted from a pound of silver, the weight of which was probably about equal to the later troy pound. Hence large payments came to be reckoned in “pounds of…

pound sterling... (75 of 163 words)

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"pound sterling." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 June 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9061103>.
APA style:
pound sterling. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 16, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9061103


	More from Britannica on "pound sterling"...


88 Encyclopædia Britannica articles, from the full 32 volume encyclopedia
>	pound sterling the basic monetary unit of Great Britain, divided (since 1971) decimally into 100 new pence. The term is derived from the fact that, about 775, silver coins known as “sterlings” were issued in the Saxon kingdoms, 240 of them being minted from a pound of silver, the weight of which was probably about equal to the later troy pound. Hence large payments came to be reckoned ...
>	pound unit of avoirdupois weight, equal to 16 ounces, 7,000 grains, or 0.4536 kg, and of troy and apothecaries' weight, equal to 12 ounces, 5,760 grains, or 0.37 kg. The Roman ancestor of the modern pound, the libra, is the source of the abbreviation lb. In medieval England several derivations of the libra vied for general acceptance. Among the earliest of these, the Tower ...
>	sterling the standard of purity for silver. The term sterling silver denotes any silver alloy in which pure silver makes up at least 92.5 percent of the content.
>	sterling area formerly, a group of countries that kept most of their exchange reserves at the Bank of England and, in return, had access to the London capital and money market. After the devaluation of the pound sterling in September 1931, the United Kingdom and other countries that continued to maintain parity with sterling and to hold their reserves in London became known as the ...
>	UNITED KINGDOM A constitutional monarchy in northwestern Europe and member of the Commonwealth, the United Kingdom comprises the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and Northern Ireland, together with many small islands. Area: 244,110 sq km (94,251 sq mi), including 3,218 sq km of inland water but excluding the crown dependencies of the Channel Islands and Isle of ...
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4 Student Encyclopedia Britannica articles, specially written for elementary and high school students
	Pound sterling the monetary unit of the United Kingdom; par value fixed in 1870 at 113.001 grains of fine gold; gold par value in United States money $8.2397, but after the United Kingdom left gold standard 1931, exchange value was about $4.86; designated by sign (£); originally the term meant an actual pound of silver from which 20 shillings were coined; the gold sovereign worth one ...
	Penny (plural, pence), an English bronze coin, historic value shilling, pound sterling; in 1971 became pound sterling; silver penny, early English coin, deeply indented with cross to permit breaking into two or four pieces, as half-pence and farthings were not coined until time of Edward I.
	Dunbar, William (1460?–1520?). A versatile Middle Scots poet attached to the court of James IV, William Dunbar was the dominant figure among the courtly poets known as the Scottish Chaucerians in the golden age of Scottish poetry. He was at ease in hymn and satire, morality and obscene comedy, panegyric and begging complaint, elegy and lampoon, and he moved freely from one to another for ...
	Inland Conquest and Colonization from the Australia article The map of inland Australia—as seen from a European perspective—was gradually and arduously compiled by the explorers who traversed its length and breadth between 1815 and 1939. White settlers who followed them pushed the pioneering frontier as far as they could into the arid center and the tropical north, first from the southeast and then from the southwest. Explorer ...

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