£

See also Appendix:Variations of "l"

Character	£
Unicode name	POUND SIGN
Latin-1 Supplement	U+00A3

Translingual

Etymology

Abbreviation of Latin libra 'pound'. The symbol is derived from the medieval tradition of placing a stroke over a letter or letters of a word (in this case L) to indicate an abbreviation; when letters have ascenders like L, the stroke frequently passes through that ascender. £ is thus cognate with the pound sign #, which was similarly derived from lb with a stroke through the ascenders.

Symbol

£

1. symbol for pound sterling
2. symbol for other currencies called pound or lira.

Derived terms

The practice of placing a stroke through the initial of the name for a currency as a symbol for that currency has been extended to other currency symbols, including several shown below.

See also

• £sd (pounds, shillings and pence)
• ₤ (lira)

Currency signs

¤ – generic currency sign ؋ - afghani ฿ – baht ¢ – cent ₡ – colón ₵ – cedi $ – dollar ₫ – dong € – euro ƒ – florin (also called guilder and gulden)

₲ – guarani ₴ – hryvnia ₭ – kip ₥ – mill ₦ – naira ₱ – peso £ – pound ﷼ – riyal ៛ – riel ރ – rufiyaa

₨ – rupee ௹ – rupee ৲ or ৳ – taka (in Bangladesh) ૱ – rupee (in Gujarat) ₪ – new shekel ₸ - tenge ₮ – tugrik ₩ – won ¥ – yen

Formerly used currency signs

₳ – austral ₠ – ECU (European Currency Unit) ₢ – cruzeiro ₯ – drachma

₣ – franc ₤ – lira ₶ - Livres Tournois ℳ – mark

₧ – peseta ₰ – pfennig ₷ - spesmilo