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| (...) It's the currency symbol used for the Great Britain Pound. I'm not 100% sure but I think the Irish Punt uses the same symbol. It is exactly analogous to $ being the currency symbol for US and Canadian and a bunch of other dollars. (...) The (...) (25 years ago, 1-Dec-99, to lugnet.loc.uk)
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| On Wed, 1 Dec 1999 16:17:25 GMT, Larry Pieniazek uttered the following profundities... (...) Yes, 'tis the same symbol. Now, for the history, why a pound? The Roman soldiers that occupied our land were paid in salt, one pound of it. The "L"-like (...) (25 years ago, 1-Dec-99, to lugnet.loc.uk)
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| (...) And to this day, Roman roads in Britain are still covered in salt. Richard (25 years ago, 1-Dec-99, to lugnet.loc.uk)
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| (...) Not just in the UK, that apparently was an empire wide thing, although I hadn't heard the bit about it being one pound's worth. Salt and Salary have the same latin root. Now you know why. However your explanation doesn't explain why it's a (...) (25 years ago, 1-Dec-99, to lugnet.loc.uk)
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| (...) Somewhat similar - IR£ - preceded by'IR' (for Irish??). The Irish punt has a variable exchange rate against the £ sterling, at the moment approx 80% of sterling. I am Irish BTW, and I generally hang about on .loc.uk - nearest thing to me that (...) (25 years ago, 2-Dec-99, to lugnet.loc.uk)
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| On Wed, 1 Dec 1999 20:04:17 GMT, Larry Pieniazek uttered the following profundities... (...) Guessing time. Transition from the "salt" standard, to silver standard? (25 years ago, 2-Dec-99, to lugnet.loc.uk)
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| Pretty good guess. A quick search on www.eb.com then reveals... "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 (...) (25 years ago, 2-Dec-99, to lugnet.loc.uk)
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