GBP: What currency?

Each state has a certain currency, which citizens can use within this country.

Many people are familiar with such a currency as the dollar or the euro, but besides these two there are many others. For example, GBP. What kind of currency? Now we'll figure it out.

Monetary unit of Britain

The reduction in GBP comes from the English language andmeans Great Britain Pound. This is the name of the monetary unit of Britain and Ireland, namely, British pounds sterling. Such currency is used in Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.

One pound has a hundred pence. In everyday life, the British use banknotes with a denomination of 5, 10, 20 and 50 pounds. In a monetary form, there are 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence, as well as 1 and 2 pounds. It is rare to find coins of 25 pence and 5 pounds.

History Facts

This currency has its own interestinghistory. There are many versions of where the pound sterling originated from. Some say that such a name goes back to the distant 12th century, then it had the value of one pound of refined silver. This name has an inextricable link with the ancient English coin, made of silver, it was called sterling.

Another common theory isversion of Walter Pinchbeck. According to her, for the monetary unit the name "Easterling Silver" was used, which means silver from the eastern lands. Such coins of 925 tests consisted of silver alloy and were created in Germany. It was the area of ​​northern Germany that was called "Easterling". Use a long name has been difficult in everyday speech, so the coins, which were made for Henry II of England, acquired a shortened version that sounds like «Sterling Silver» and translated as sterling silver.

The final name of the monetary unit of Britainentrenched in it in 1694. In the same year, the English bank first issued a banknote. Although the full name of the GBP is pound sterling, in the modern world a short pound reduction is applied.

Information on other monetary units can be found in the Currency section.