GBP (£)
Pounds sterling
Current regime
Trading the GBP between market participants and across borders is unrestricted and the market price is primarily determined without central bank intervention.
Highly standardised payment processing.
History
The Pound sterling is the oldest currency in continuous use.
The origins of the pound can be traced all the way back to the Roman period and the £ symbol is actually a stylised L standing for the Latin word Libra for weight. Libra Pondo literally meant a pound of weight in silver, and as with the roman system of libra, solidus and denarius, this was divided into 10 shillings and 240 silver pennies.
The Anglo-Saxon King Offa is credited with the introduction of coinage into central and southern England around 775 C.E. The silver penny was the only denomination minted at the time, and pounds and shillings were only used as units of account.
The first pound coin was introduced in 1489.
The pound was decimalised on 15 February 1971 and the shilling and the penny were replaced with the new penny.
The pound was floated from August 1971 with the discontinuation of the Bretton Woods system.
The pound accounted for 12.8% of global FX turnover in April 2019.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/
