Real coins·19 June 2026·4 min read
Pound sterling — a pound of silver, literally
The oldest currency still in use. Its name says exactly what it was made of a thousand years ago — and why weight was the first form of trust.
"Pound sterling" literally means a pound of silver. A thousand years ago in England, 240 pennies were struck from one pound (about 454 g) of silver. A coin's value was, quite simply, the weight of the metal in it.
Why the name matters
Many old currencies take their name from a weight: the lira, the peso (meaning "weight"), the shekel. It was the most honest form of trust — you could weigh the money. Today the pound is no longer silver, but the name remained, a linguistic fossil of the times when value was measured on a scale.
In the beginning you didn't have to trust anyone: you had the scale. Civilization meant, among other things, the move from weight to trust.
