The pound sterling is the currency of the United Kingdom as well as of the Crown Dependencies and some British overseas territories. In its other colonial territories different currencies are used but fixed to the sterling: the Gibraltarian pound, the Malvinas pound and the pound of Santa Elena. Its monetary symbol is £ and comes from the Latin pound, which referred to the unit of mass. One pound is divided into one hundred pennies; The full official name, sterling pound (plural, sterling), is used mostly in formal contexts and also when it is necessary to distinguish the currency used in the United Kingdom from those used in other countries and have the same first name. The name of the currency - but not the names of its units - is sometimes abbreviated only to "sterling", particularly in the wholesale financial markets; for example "payment accepted in" sterling ", but not" that costs five sterling. "The abbreviations" ster. "or" stg. "are occasionally used.The term British pound is commonly used in less formal situations, although it is not a official name of the currency Sterling is an old sterling silver English coin, an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper and / or other metals, and with a mass of 1,555 grams or 1 / 240 of a pound troy.
