British money system

Prior to February 15th 1971 the British currency system was known as pounds,
shillings and pence. In the system used at that time 12 pennies was equal to one
shilling and 20 shillings was equal to one pound. After February 15th 1971 the UK
moved to a new system called decimalisation and brought the currency into line with
the metric systems used in Europe which are based on a logical system of 10 or factors
of 10's. So with decimalisation came a system of pounds and pence doing away with
shillings altogether. UK currency is known as BRITISH STERLING.

Under this system 100 pence is equal to one pound making working with the
UK currency far easier. The symbol used for pounds is: £ or is sometimes shown as
GBP (Great Britain Pounds) and the symbol used for pence is: p.

So two pound forty pence would be written: £2.40 or GBP 2.40.

Twenty pence would be written 20p.

Currently the currency in use is as follows:

coins: 1 penny, 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, one pound, 2 pounds.
The 1 penny and 2 pence piece are bronze, the 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence pieces are silver
and the 1 and 2 pound coins are gold. All coins carry the Queens head on the front.

Like the UK coins the notes all carry the Queens head. They also carry a
watermark that is visible to the eye only when held up to the light. The watermark is
the Queens head and shows in the egg shaped white space on all the above notes.
There is also a silver strip that shows when held up to the light along the width of the
notes.

New Five Pound Note

On September 13th 2016 the UK got its first plastic note, the new five pound note.
15% smaller than the older traditional paper type in use at the time. Its made from a
material called polymer which is a flexible thin plastic. The old five pound note no
longer being legal tender after May 2017. The new version will last 2.5 times longer
making them better value. On the back is the face of Winston Churchill along with his
famous quote of "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat". While the
front is still Queen Elizabeth II.

New Fifty Pound

On the 2nd August 2011 a new £50, designed by Chris Salmon, was issued. The note
as usual shows the Queen on one side while the other side shows Matthew Boulton
and engineer James Watt. Matthew Boulton was a business entrepreneur from the 18th
century while James Watt was an engineer perhaps best known for his part in
inventing the separate condenser, an improvement on the Newcomen steam engine.
Known as an 'F' series note, the first of which was the twenty pound note issues in
2007. This is the first bank note in the UK to feature two portraits on the reverse side.

New Twenty Pound Note:

On the 13th March 2007 a new £20 note was issued by the bank of England. The last
time this note was replaced was 1999. When new notes are issued the old ones
continue to be legal tender for a considerable time. Even after that you can still
exchange the old notes for new ones at UK banks. In this case the older style £20 note
was withdrawn on June 30th 2010.
The new style note shows the image of Adam Smith (eighteenth century economist)
which makes him the first Scottish citizen to be shown on a UK bank note. The
changes over the last £20 note include a lighter shade of purple and several security
enhancements. For example raised lettering and larger hologram and a new security
colour tag which shows up under ultra-violet light. Interestingly the £20 note is the
most commonly used note.

The UK is does not use the same currency as much of Europe contrary to the
belief of many first time visitors. While many countries of the European union use the
Euro which came into being on January 1st 1999 the UK has so far decided to
continue with its own currency.
 History of the Pound Sterling

The name of the pound sterling is derived from the Latin word “libra,” which
corresponds to balance and weight. The Bank of England first issued the pound
banknotes more than 300 years ago, with the notes undergoing several changes over
the years. The pound coin first appeared in 1489, during the rule of Henry VII. Pound
notes started to circulate in England in 1694, shortly after the establishment of the
Bank of England, and the notes were originally handwritten. The pound worked in its
complex scheme of pennies and shillings until 1971, when the decimal system was
introduced.

Coin minting was mechanized in 1660, and features such as side lettering were
introduced in its design to help eliminate money-clipping. GBP continues to exist
independently today, although much of the rest of Europe already uses the euro as a
common currency.

The United Kingdom allowed the British pound to float freely in 1971, among
other currencies. Such a decision allowed market factors to decide the value of the
currency rather than artificial pegs. The U.K. considered attaching the value of the
British pound to the deutsche mark in 1990, but soon afterward discarded that notion.
In 2002, after the euro became the shared currency of most member states of the
European Union, the United Kingdom opted not to follow it. Instead, the U.K. retained
GBP as its national currency.