1200 years ago, when the first silver coins appeared in circulation in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the history of the British currency - the pound sterling - began. Over such a long period, the pound has experienced a lot, but in the end it has held out and occupies a confident position among world currencies.
Initially, the pound sterling in Great Britain was equal to one troy pound of pure silver, hence its name, because the English word "sterling" in relation to the metal means "pure, of the established standard." The pound sterling is the only national currency used in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British territories: Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. The symbol for this currency is the £ sign.
The design of pound sterling banknotes differs depending on the region where they are printed. The British themselves cannot always recognize the currency of their country and take it for a foreign one.
Banknotes
In England, pounds sterling is represented in circulation in the form of banknotes in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 pounds. All banknotes have an image of a queen on one side and a famous historical person on the other. Queen Elizabeth II is the only monarch whose porter was featured on the banknote. This first happened in 1960 with the aim of reducing counterfeit money in the country. As for the reverse side of the paper pound, the five-pound note features a portrait of Elizabeth Fry, who fought to improve conditions for women in European prisons. The ten-pound note depicts Charles Darwin, a Victorian naturalist and author of the theory of evolution. The twenty-pound note depicted the British composer Sir Edward Elgar until 2007, when a new design was issued, bearing the porter of Adam Smith, one of the founding fathers of modern economics. The fifty pound note bears the image of Sir John Hublon, the first Governor of the Bank of England.
The British have come up with slang nicknames for their currency. For example, words like "fiver" - "five" - for five pounds and "tenner" - "ten" for ten pounds are used. The pound is also called "cable" or "quid".
Coins
Since 1971, the decimal system has been in effect in England, that is, one pound is now equal to one hundred pence (in a unit called "penny"). The accepted designation for the penny is the English letter "p". In circulation in England, coins are in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 pence and 1, 2 pounds. All coins also bear a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, and the letters "D. G. REG. F. D." are engraved along the edge of the coin. Tourists often wonder what phrase is hidden in this abbreviation. In fact, these letters stand for a Latin saying - "Dei Gratia Regina Fidei Defensor", which translates as "By God's grace, Queen Protector of the Faith." The reverse side of the 1 penny coin depicts the downward grating of Westminster Abbey, on 2 pence - the coat of arms of the Prince of Wales (a crown decorated with feathers), on 5 pence - a thistle, the symbol of Scotland, on 10 pence - a lion, a symbol of the power of Britain, with the crown of the British monarchy on the head, at 20 pence - the national flower of England - the Tudor rose, and at 50 pence - the lion and the symbol of the British Isles. As for the coins in denominations of 1 and 2 pounds, the first of them has different images, reflecting the symbols of the countries of the United Kingdom. They are lions for England, thistles for Scotland and leeks for Wales. The 2 pound coin depicts an abstraction depicting the country's technological development, and along the edge is engraved with a phrase belonging to Sir Isaac Newton: "Standing on the shoulders of giants."
