pound sterling Currency modern current
Countries officially user (s)	United Kingdom , British Crown Dependencies , British territories overseas
Local symbol
ISO 4217 Code	GBP
Subunit	100 pence (Singular: penny )
Exchange rate	1 EUR = 0 882 GBP ( 13 October 2010 )
change

The pound sterling (plural English is the monetary unit 's official United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , the British Crown Dependencies , and the British Overseas Sea.

However we must differentiate between several pounds.

In England and Wales:

- The British pound sterling (see British Pounds ) has legal tender in England and Wales only. It is the Bank of England Bank of England "which issues banknotes for these two territories. Thus only banknotes issued by the Bank of England are legal tender in England and Wales .

In other parts of the UK the situation is different:

- In Scotland and Northern Ireland , retail banks have received approval from the Bank of England are allowed to issue banknotes. These banks are three in number for Scotland ( Bank of Scotland , Clydesdale Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland ) and four for Northern Ireland ( Ulster Bank , Bank of Ireland , Northern Bank and First Trust Bank ). Scottish banks issue books Scottish and Northern Irish banks issue IEP. These coins have the name "pound sterling" however, Scotland and Northern Ireland has no currency status of legal tender. Or those issued by Bank of England "or those issued by banks of corresponding territories .

Negotiations are currently underway in the United Kingdom to give the title of "legal tender" by the pound in England Scotland, Wales and Scotland. If until now the acceptance of the Scottish book remained at the discretion of merchants in England and Wales, this change in the law will force them to accept Scottish pound as a means of payment required. .

- In the British Crown Dependencies :

- The Isle of Man makes the book Manx or Manx Pound (see Paper Manx ), abbreviated IMP (not ISO ), which is the only currency to be "legal tender" in that territory. The English book is however generally accepted.

- The island of Jersey is located in the Channel Islands emits Jersey book (see Book Jersey old series , Book Jersey new series ), abbreviated EHD (not ISO) is the only currency to be "legal tender" in that territory. The book of Guernsey and the British pound are also sometimes accepted.

- The island of Guernsey, located in the Channel Islands issues the book of Guernsey (see Book of Guernsey ), abbreviated AMG (not ISO) is the only currency to be "legal tender" in that territory. The acceptance of the pound and Jersey pound is at the discretion of the traders.

Coins minted in the Crown dependency are modeled on the divisions of the pound sterling (same set of denominations), but the faces are decorated with specific reasons. These coins are not legal tender outside the territories that issue, and in certain British territories overseas.

All these coins are legal tender but their legal tender can vary from one jurisdiction to another. That is to say, these currencies may be accepted as legal tender for transactions. Like credit cards, debit or other checks, such means of payment are not legal tender but are accepted as legal tender. And an English trader who refused a ticket in Irish pounds , Manx and others arguing that these notes were not legal tender in England , in its logic should refuse credit cards and checks.

Any book issued by territories of the United Kingdom , the British Crown Dependencies or British territories overseas are indexed on the British pound could be exchanged for pounds upon request in any UK bank. These territories include:

- The Falkland Islands - Gibraltar - Guernsey - Isle of Man - Jersey - Saint Helena and Ascension Island

The pound sterling is one of the oldest currency still in circulation and ^the 4th motto most traded on the foreign exchange market . It is symbolized by the symbol (Sterling) and the code ISO GBP. The symbol , one L ornate, has been used since the ^eighteenth century and note the amount before and not after : So you write " 7.50" and not 7.50.

On 29 December 2008 , the British pound fell to its lowest historical rate against the euro , recoiling at 1.0205 euros to the pound, a level unprecedented in the history of British currency.

According to historian Nicholas Mayhew , to denote the name sterling English money date from the late ^eleventh century - the beginning of the ^twelfth century (just after the Norman invasion of 1066 ) . You can find the first occurrence of the term in the autobiography of Guibert of Nogent in 1115 describing an operation of bribing cardinals to Rome to confirm the election of the Bishop of Laon , but the etymology of the term remains obscure.

• According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary , the word would be Norman in origin and comes from steorra (early pennies were a little star - star). In support of this explanation, the fact that originally designated the sterling penny and is used in the plural: it was "five pounds of sterling" .
• In his History of Civilization, Will Durant forward another explanation of the origin of the word sterling, it would come from a reputation for integrity Merchants Hanseatic League , the Easterlings (men from the east) and describe a gold or a silver "good weight and of good quality." But according to OALD , if this explanation were correct, the first stressed syllable would not have disappeared.
• According to another source, the word comes from the Sterling Old French Esterline, who gave the Old English Stier (strong, firm, unwavering) . The Concise Oxford reverses the explanation: the Esterlin was a French coin of the Middle Ages (late ^twelfth century ) and is the French term that would be of English origin .
• According to Nicholas Mayhew, the word sterling is not Old English. Moreover, the term first appears in its Latin sterlingus before appearing in French in the ^twelfth century , then Italian and German in the ^thirteenth century. He supported the explanation by the Germanic root ster who has the connotation of strength and stability and justifies the approximation by the fact that William the Conqueror had terminated the complex (and poorly understood) system of weights and measures used by Anglo-Saxons and established an early "standardization". Thus the most common pieces minted in the last years of his reign have a fixed weight of about 1.38 g.
  The term sterling would refer to this new stability and would have marked the beginning of a new regime. According to Mayhew, sterling could well have been part of the package of administrative reforms that took place in England in the year 1080 : in addition to the creation of the new currency , the era witnessed the establishment of a heavy tax land in 1084 and the census of Domesday Book in 1086 .

History

Middle Ages

The Norman dynasty

At the end of the ^eleventh century , the total money supply is estimated at 37,500 pounds, or 9 million pennies (only documents existing at the time), representing an amount of silver metal very high (approximately 15 tonnes). The Domesday Book suggests a society in which the currency is already playing a key role. Scattered throughout the country, there are no fewer than 71 mints in operation during the reign of William ^I. . However, the supply of metal is a recurring problem of England and the scarcity metal native determine one of the fundamental characteristics of its economy: the need to develop trade by sea. Only in the 1180s that the situation improves.

If William the Conqueror ended the Anglo-Saxon monetary system, it nevertheless retained any of the annual change in the pattern of hits . This tradition has been maintained by his successors until Henry ^I of England. The method had several advantages: first, he claimed the king's role in the validation of the currency, then it allowed to link regularly face value of the currency to its intrinsic value, then it was a source of revenue for the royal power levied a tax for the issuance of currency, seigniorage.

Throughout the Middle Ages , the shortage of precious metal will be a critical element of the economy and the wealth of a state depended more on chance discovery of a new deposit gold or silver as the economic policy its leaders. Ways to cope with the shortage were numerous: reduced as of the mass of the piece overall, increased face value , etc.. The economic quality of a currency depends greatly on the quality of metal parts. Some English kings had also deal with movements of discontent was based on a real or perceived decline in quality money .

Thus, at Christmas 1124 , Henry ^I , which is suspected of hitting parts of less tasteful , tried to restore confidence in its currency and operational control of the quality of work moneyers (workers responsible for coinage). Following this audit, 94 of the 150 workers were castrated and had his right hand cut off as punishment for their evil work .

The relationship between money and royal power was particularly strong in England. A truth that proves a contrario the proliferation of workshops emission during the following period which saw the country torn during the English Civil War (1135-1154).

The Plantagenets

The accession of Henry II to the throne in 1154 put an end to disorder and open a new era of monetary stability. The new monarch renounces hits annually and his reign is placed under the sign of rationalization: fewer mints (about thirty), which allows better quality control, standardization of seigniorage (5% ). Henry II is credited with the introduction in England of the French system of measurement troy, and the creation of the Tower pound used by the Mint of the Tower of London as a standard of sterling money. The title of the currency, virtually pure until then passes to 925 mils (which will remain constant characteristic minimum sterling ). The decrease of the title of money will allow an improvement in the holding room and allows strikes less frequent.

Economically, the second half of the ^twelfth century is marked by the almost simultaneous discovery of a large number of silver deposits in Europe : Freiberg (Saxony) in 1168 , Cologne and Flanders in 1170, England in 1180 . This metal abundance lead to a significant increase in the amount of currency in the West and cause a real "commercial revolution" in the ^thirteenth century.

Subdivisions

Originally, the book represents the value corresponding to the mass of a pound of silver metal pure . Among the many transformation that the British currency has undergone during its long history, one of the most important was the "decimalisation". Until 1971 in fact, the UK had maintained a monetary system whose divisions and subdivisions dating back to the Roman Empire. This system remained the norm in Europe until the late ^eighteenth century , but had since been abandoned almost everywhere. The UK was thus the last major economy to adopt the decimal system.

Before decimalization

Based on the model book / penny / penny inherited from the Carolingian period , the pound sterling was divided into 20 shillings and a shilling was worth 12 pence (singular: one penny ). A book is divided into 240 pence so . The abbreviation for the shilling was "/" or "s" (which is not the first letter of the word, but that of Latin solidus ). The symbol of the penny was "d", the Latin denarius.

Coins before decimalisation:

• The farthing , 1 / 4 of a penny (1 / 48 shillings). Struck in copper from 1672 to 1956, the date of his disappearance.
• The half-penny (1/24th of shilling). Struck in copper from 1672 to 1967, it will be replaced by the new half penny from 1971 to 1983, when he disappeared.
• The penny (1/12th shilling). The copper penny is a continuation of a Roman coin, the denarius, and he will be replaced by the new penny in 1971.
• The three pence (1 / 4 of shilling). Struck in silver from 1551 to 1944 and greatest brass and dodecagon from 1937 to 1967, the date of his disappearance.
• The groat or four pence (1 / 3 of shilling), struck in silver. One of the oldest piece is 4 pence with honors in 1704 and most recently in 1930.
• The sixpence (1 / 2 shilling), struck in silver from 1551 to 1946, and copper-nickel from 1947 to 1967, the date of his disappearance.
• The shilling (1/20th of a pound), struck in silver from 1548 to 1946 and from 1947 to 1967 copper-nickel, the date of his disappearance.
• The florin was worth 2 shillings (1/10th of a pound). Struck in silver from 1848 to 1936, he appointed then just two shillings in silver from 1937 to 1967, the date of his disappearance.
• The half-crown was worth 2 shillings and sixpence (1/8th of a pound). Struck in silver from 1551 to 1946, and copper-nickel from 1947 to 1967, the date of his disappearance.
• The crown was worth 5 shillings (1 / 4 pound). Struck in silver from 1526 to 1937, when he disappeared.
• The Guinea , gold coin minted from 1663 to 1818, the date of his disappearance. Originally it was on par with the pound sterling which really weighed a pound of silver (about 409 grams). With the price of gold, its price was fixed at 21 shillings or 1 pound and 1 shilling. Its name comes from Guinea (country), a major source of gold at the time.
• The semi-sovereign worth 10 shillings (half pound). Struck in gold, about 4 grams.
• The sovereign. Gold from 1818 to today (about 8 grams) was on par with the pound sterling.

The British monetary system had, however, other rooms:

• The mark (understood both as unit mass than monetary unit ) which was worth 2 / 3 of a pound. 1 mark was worth 160 pence, therefore, or 13 shillings and 4 pence (1 m = 13s 4d).
• The half farthing of Queen Victoria in 1844 only.
• The third farthing of George V, in 1913 only.
• The double florin of Queen Victoria between 1887 and 1890.

The Guinea

The Guinea (Guinea) is a gold coin minted from 1663 to 1813 and worth 21 shillings. Although no longer correspond to an existing currency, the Guinea continued to be widely used, particularly in trade in racehorses, but also to express certain amounts in particular the fees of certain professions, and prices in some stores chic. From 1813 to 1971 it was worth one pound and one shilling, 21 shillings or 252 old pence. Since the decimalization of 1971, it is 105 (new) pence.

After decimalization

Since the D-Day (Decimalisation Day), the 15 February 1971 , the shilling has disappeared and the pound is divided into 100 pence (singular, one penny ). The letter "p" was adopted as a symbol of the new penny to differentiate it from the old.

The value of the penny has changed during the changeover to the decimal system. The first years following 1971, the penny a new genre was often called new penny ("new penny"). The pieces of p, 1 p, 2 p, 5 p, 10 p and 50 p NEW PENCE carried the statement until 1982, when registration became ONE PENNY, TWO PENCE, FIVE PENCE and so on. The half penny was withdrawn from circulation.

Slang of the pound sterling

In colloquial speech, the initial p (pronounced / pi / ) penny pence and its plural is used: "it's 50 pence" to "it's 50 percent."

Familiar in the register, is replaced by pound quid. Originally ( XVII ^century ), the term meant a quid Sovereign or Guinea , today, a book . For example, "toe foot five pounds" to "toe foot five quid" (without the plural). It uses what about that for integers. "Ten quid" for ten pounds, but it says "seven pound fifty" or simply "Seven Fifty" for 7.50 pounds (never "seven fifty quid).

In the slang of Australia and New Zealand , "to make a quid" means "making money" .

References

Notes

References

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