England Money

Pound Sterling: the England Money

The pound sterling or commonly referred as just pound is the national currency of United Kingdom and the England money. The crown dependencies of the pound are made of the British overseas territories, the British Antarctic Territory and the South Sandwich Islands.

The Saint Helena Pound, Falkland Island pound and the Gibraltar pound are different currencies which are linked to pound sterling. The England money is today the third largest reserve currency in the world after the Euro and US Dollar. Additionally the pound sterling is also the 4th most traded currency in foreign exchange markets after Japanese Yen, Euro and the US Dollar.

The full name pound sterling is officially used mainly in the formal contexts and when it is necessary to distinguish it from the United Kingdom currency and even form other countries that have the same currency name.

The origins of this pound sterling lie mainly in the reign of the well known King Offa of Mercia the one who introduced silver penny. It also copied the denarius which later used in the currency system of Frankish empire, Charlemagne. According to the Carolingian scheme around 240 pennies weighed one pound where the shilling corresponded to the solidus of Charlemangne and was equal to 12d.

The pound sterling is one of the oldest forms of currency which is still being used. The early pennies were stuck to pure fine silver, but in the year 1158 a new coin system was launched by King Henry II. It was the standard unit till the 20th century which is today called as the sterling silver. It was basically named with its association with the form of currency.

During the period f King Edward VI and Henry VII this silver coin system was considerably dishonored even though the pound was redefined to troy pound. In the year 1544 silver coin system was introduced that included just one third of silver with two thirds of copper.

In the year 1663 an innovative gold coin system was issued which was based on fine guinea of 22 carat. It was fixed in its weight to 44 1/2 to the earlier troy pound and the value of this coin varied considerably until the year 1717 as during this time it was fixed at around 21 shillings.

With regards to the establishment of modern currency of England money the Bank of England was formed in the year 1694. The bank was actually followed by Bank of Scotland and they both started issuing paper money.

The pound Scots had started to equal the sterling but they even suffered much higher decentralization until it started to link to sterling at a fixed value. In the year 1707 the Kingdom of Scotland and Kingdom of England fused to be called as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and so in accordance to the new Treaty of Unions the money form or currency of United Kingdom was called as sterling with the pound of Scots to be replaced at pegged value.

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