What Is a British Pound?
The British pound is the informal name of the pound sterling, the unit of currency for Great Britain and its territories. It is the fourth most traded currency worldwide following the U.S. dollar, Euro, and Japanese yen, and it is third largest reserve currency after the U.S. dollar and the Euro. Because it is a freely traded currency, the value of the pound changes relative to other currencies. Coins for the British pound first appeared around 1489, and the shilling was introduced two years earlier. Originally the British pound was divided into twenty shillings, and each shilling was worth twelve pence (or pennies). In 1971, Great Britain decided to eliminate the shilling and decimalize the British pound so that one pound was equal to one hundred pennies. The decimalized penny was minted as the “new penny” until 1981.
