I was curious why the pound sterling was called such.
Turns out it’s from Latin, lībra pondō (“a pound by weight”), as in a pound of silver. Has the same roots as the lira.
The “£” symbol is a blackletter “L” for “libra”, similar to the imperial weight “lb”. 🤯
Occasionally when I’m converting currencies I’ll “convert 100 lbs to aud” for a laugh. Google understands I mean “gbp” and that’s always amused me. Now it feels more connected.
I wasn’t sure if this is one of those things Europeans know that was never taught in Australia, but it does seem pretty esoteric. And Shawn hadn’t heard it before so maybe not.
Source: couple of fascinating articles: