What Does the British Pounds Symbol Actually Mean?
Many people are curious as to what the British pound symbol means. It is an odd symbol and seems to have nothing to do with the name of the currency unit. In fact, the British pounds symbol has a long and meaningful history that goes back centuries. And even though it may not seem like it, the “L” in L does match its name – its original name, the name that most people never learned about when they learned about the pound. The British pounds symbol was originally an ₤ with two cross-bars, then later more it became more common to use an L with a single cross-bar. The pound sign derives from the black letter “L”. This is an abbreviation of the word Librae which was the equivalent of the pound in currency in the ancient Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, even though it collapsed in the fifth century, was extremely influential to nations throughout Europe. So it is little surprise that later nations would pattern such things as their money after Roman designs and usage. In Roman times they had
