Of course, the "copperplate" L with the bar is as incongruous to England
as our "#" mark is here: its origins are from the French word, "Livre,"
which was a weight of one pound. The basic unit of currency in France
was, as was adopted in England, a pound of silver, and it has its
origins in Rome from the Latin word "libra," which is a weight of one pound.
Maybe if the British wanted to be correct, they should designate the
unit of currency Pound as:
*P *with a "*-*" through it! Just like our "*$*" sign had its origins
as the "*S*" with "*U*" superimposed over it.
Interestingly, the Roman pound was subdivided into 12 onces, and the
English divided the Pound into 12 shillings, of 20 pence each. Thus a
shilling was one oz. of sterling silver.
Cheers.
Michael Hargreave Mawson wrote:
> On Fri, 9 Dec 2005, at around 16:11:43 local time, Dave1massey@cs.com
> wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 12/9/2005 12:42:47 PM Central Standard Time,
>> OC@46thfoot.com writes:
>> If "#" is a pound sign to Americans, what do they (you) call the
>> copperplate capital L with a cross-bar that we have called a pound
>> sign
>> for the past millennium or two?
>> This is how we differentiate between the Pound Stirling and the Lb av.
>
>
> I don't understand what is so labour-intensive about writing "lb" that
> you have to shorten it to #, but I guess that's my problem. <g>
>
>>
>> I don't know what symbol is used for a Troy pound.
>
>
> Me neither. All I can find via a quick Google is "troy lb". Anyone?
>
> ATB
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