Pound (currency)
Pound is the name of various currencies in mostly English-speaking countries, in German they are usually called pound . The currency names Lira ( Italian ), Livre ( French ) and dschineh / ginēh ( Arabic جنيه) go back to the same original meaning of the Karl pound and are used in parallel to pounds in some currencies . The currency symbol used for most of these currencies is £ or ₤ .
history
With the spread of the pound (weight) as a unit of weight throughout Europe , it became the namesake for numerous coins and currency systems . Charlemagne stipulated in his coin regulations that 240 pfennigs ( denarii ) must be minted from one Carolingian pound of silver . This system was maintained in Great Britain and Ireland in sterling and Irish pounds respectively until 1971.
In Berlin at least until the 1990s, in Cologne until the transition to the euro, the name “pound” for 20 marks was known. This is due to the fact that at the time of the gold standard in the German Empire, one pound sterling was equivalent to around 20 Reichsmarks .
Guinee , Guinea or Guinée is an old synonym for pound, which in England is sometimes still used in high speech today (the value of a guinea was 21 shillings, while a pound was 20 shillings value). In Egypt and Sudan it is the official denomination of the national currencies.
Lira is derived from the Latin libra "scales", here in the metonymic meaning "weighed": The Roman pound was Latin libra .
Today's currencies
Historical currencies
lb
- St. Moritz pound, also Mörsiger pound , Latin : Libra Mauriensis or Libra Mauriciensis ; Until 1850 in Valais common measure of money from St. Moritz ( Saint-Maurice ), where there was a mint.
Pound
- Australian pound (until 1966 Australia )
- Bermuda pound (until 1970 Bermuda )
- Biafra pound (1967 to 1970 Biafra )
- Gambian pound (until 1971 Gambia )
- Ghanaian pound (1958 to 1965 Ghana )
- Fiji pound (until 1969 Fiji )
- Irish pound (until 2001 Ireland ; in Irish punt )
- Jamaican pound (until 1969 Jamaica )
- Canadian pound (until 1858 Canada )
- Malawi pound (until 1971 Malawi )
- New Guinea pound (1915 to 1966 New Guinea Territory )
- New Zealand pound (1840 to 1967 New Zealand )
- Nigerian pound (1907 to 1972 Nigeria )
- Palestine pound (1927 to 1948 Mandate Palestine )
- Rhodesian pound (1970 to 1980 Rhodesia )
- Rhodesia and Nyasaland pounds (1955 to 1964 Rhodesia and Nyasaland )
- Samoan pound (1914 to 1967 Samoa )
- Solomon Islands Pound (1899 to 1966 Solomon Islands )
- Zambian pound (1964 to 1968 Zambia )
- South African Pond (1891 to 1902 South African Republic )
- South African pound (until 1961 South Africa )
- South Rhodesian Pound (until 1955 South Rhodesia )
- Tonga pound (until 1967 Tonga )
- West African pound (formerly British West Africa )
- Cyprus pound (until 2007 Cyprus )
lira
- Israeli pound (until 1980 Israel )
- Italian lira (until 2001 Italy )
- Maltese lira (until 2007 Malta )
- San Marino Lira (until 2001 San Marino )
- Vatican Lira (until 2001 Vatican City )
Others
- Livre (until 1795 France )
- Libyan pound ( Arabic جنيه; 1951 to 1971 Libya )
- Lliura mallorquina (until 1869 Mallorca )
Web links
- Daniel Schmutz: Pound (currency). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ↑ André Samper: Supplements to the study of the activities of the Redemptorists in the Upper Valais parishes , (PDF) , p 462, footnote 37th