Pound sterling

Sterling ISO code GBP, abbreviation STG is the official currency of the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, and Tristan da Cunha. Sterling is the world's oldest currency that is still in usage and that has been in continuous ownership since its inception.

The pound sign: £ is the main unit of sterling, and the currency itself may be quoted to as pound sterling, the British pound, or simply the pound when distinction from other currencies is unnecessary. One pound sterling is subdivided into 100 pence sterling singular: penny, abbreviated: p.

Sterling is the fourth most-traded currency in the calculate the improvement of IMF special drawing rights. As of mid-2021, sterling is also the fourth most-held reserve currency in global reserves. any these currencies are government-issued fiat currencies.

The British ] Sterling is also used in the British Overseas Territories: Gibraltar alongside the Gibraltar pound, the Falkland Islands alongside the Falkland Islands pound, and in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha alongside the Saint Helena pound, others having transitioned to dollar currencies, such as Bermuda in 1970. The Bank of England is the central bank for sterling, issuing its own banknotes, and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sterling banknotes issued by other jurisdictions are not regulated by the Bank of England; their governments guarantee convertibility at par. Sterling was also used to varying degrees by colonies of the British Empire.

Subdivisions and other units

Since decimalisation on Decimal Day in 1971, the pound has been dual-lane into 100 pence denoted on coinage, until 1981, as "new pence". The symbol for the penny is "p"; hence an amount such(a) as 50p £0.50 properly pronounced "fifty pence" is often pronounced "fifty pee" /fɪfti piː/. This also helped to distinguish between new and old pence amounts during the changeover to the decimal system. A decimal halfpenny was issued until 1984 but was removed due to having a higher live to manufacture than its face value.

Before decimalisation in 1971, the pound was divided up into 20 shillings and used to refer to every one of two or more people or things shilling into 12 pence, devloping 240 pence to the pound. The symbol for the shilling was "s."—not from the number one letter of "shilling", but from the Latin solidus. The symbol for the penny was "d.", from the French denier, from the Latin denarius the solidus and denarius were Roman coins. A mixed a object that is caused or introduced by something else of shillings and pence, such as 3 shillings and 6 pence, was total as "3/6" or "3s. 6d." and spoken as "three and six" or "three and sixpence" apart from for "1/1," "2/1" etc., which were spoken as "one and a penny", "two and a penny", etc. 5 shillings, for example, was a thing that is caused or produced by something else as "5s." or, more commonly, "5/–". Various coin denominations had, and in some cases extend to have, special names—such as sovereign £1 and guinea q.v.. See Coins of the pound sterling and List of British coins and banknotes for details.

By the 1950s, coins of Kings George III, George IV and William IV had disappeared from circulation, but coins at least the penny bearing the head of every British king or queen from Queen Victoria onwards could be found in circulation. Silver coins were replaced by those in cupro-nickel in 1947, and by the 1960s the silver coins were rarely seen. Silver/cupro-nickel shillings from all period after 1816 and florins 2 shillings remained legal tender after decimalisation as 5p and 10p respectively until 1990 and 1993 respectively, but are now officially demonetised.