Origin of the currency symbol £ (pound sterling)

After we recently talked about the origin of the dollar sign $, I want to write a short note today about the sign of the British pound, even if the story is not quite as legendary as the story of the dollar sign.

The symbol for the British pound comes from the Latin word Libra (plural Librae) for pound. Here, one has simply taken the first letter of Libra. In Latin, like in Britain, a pound or a libra is a unit of weight and was exactly one Tower Pound of fine silver.

About of how to use it: The £ is written without spaces before the relevant numerical value.