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The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories is denominated in pennies and pounds sterling ( symbol "£", commercial GBP), and ranges in value from one penny sterling to two pounds. Since decimalisation, on 15 February 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 (new) pence.
Sov – a nickname for Sovereigns, and also sometimes applied to pound coins. Nugget – a relative newcomer used to refer to pound coins but which may have been previously applied to Sovereigns. Beer token – commonly used but often assigned specifically to the £2 coin, as when it was introduced a pint of beer in Britain commonly cost around £2.
The production of the round pound coins ceased in December 2015. The new 12-sided pound coin replaced it, featuring enhanced security features and a more durable design. The round pound coins minted by the British Crown dependencies and Gibraltar, while similar to the UK pound coin, were never legal tender in the UK.
The pound is the main unit of sterling, and the word pound is also used to refer to the British currency generally, often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling. Sterling is the world's oldest currency that is still in use and that has been in continuous use since its inception.
Although UK the earliest UK coins stretch back to ancient times, the Pound coin, as we recognize it today, was first introduced in 1489 during the reign of Henry VII. These early coins were made of gold and were known as Sovereigns, marking the birth of the popular gold bullion coin we all know today.
Mar 28, 2017 · Released on 28 March 2017, the new £1 features a range of overt and covert security features that, when combined, protects it from increasingly sophisticated counterfeit operations, making it the most secure coin in the world.
One pound sterling was originally divided by 240 sterling pence. This was because there are 240 pennyweights in a troy pound. So a single one–pound coin weighed one troy pound (about 373 grams) and a single 1–penny coin weighed one pennyweight (about. 1.5 gram). The Latin word for "pound" is libra.
