  the pound sign (Â£) is the symbol for the pound sterlingâthe currency of the united kingdom (uk). the same symbol is (or was) used for similarly named currencies in some other countries and territories, such as the irish pound, gibraltar pound, australian pound, and italian lira. the symbol derives from a capital "l", representing libra, the basic unit of weight in the roman empire, which in turn is derived from the latin name of the same spelling for scales or a balance. the pound became an english unit of weight and was so named because it originally had the value of one tower pound (~350 grams) of fine (pure) silver. the pound sign is placed before the number (e.g. "Â£12,000"), and separated from the following digits by no space or only a thin space. the symbol â¹â¤âº was called the lira sign in italy, before the adoption of the euro. it was used as an alternative to the more usual l to show prices in lire. in american and canadian english, the term "pound sign" usually refers to the symbol # (see number sign), and the corresponding telephone key is called the "pound key". in the original old caslon metal fonts, the pound sign was identical to the italic capital "j" rotated 180 degrees. ==computing== ===codepoints=== the pound sign has unicode code point .http://www.unicode.org/charts/pdf/u0080.pdf the lira sign has unicode code point . unicode notes that this is not widely used, and the preferred sign for lira is the pound sign.http://www.unicode.org/charts/pdf/u20a0.pdf ===entry methods=== ====historical==== prior to the introduction of the ibm pc, there was no unique accepted standard for entering, displaying, printing, or storing the Â£ sign in the uk computer industry. on personal computers prior to the pc the "#" key was often used; sometimes it was displayed on screen as "#", but many printers could be set up to print "Â£" where "#" was sent to the printer by an application program. keying in, storing, displaying, and printing the sign often required special set-up. although the "#" sign is commonly called the "hash symbol", it is also referred to as the "pound sign" in north americ
Currency_symbols