[rescue] Alphaserver

[Stephen D. B. Wolthusen]

On 09-Jul-2003 Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> Michael A. Turner writes, quoting Dan ...
> 
>> > I think the seller wants 50 pounds for it.
>>
>>      Not to bash the British, but everytime I see this monitary unit I
>> think to myself "Fifty pounds of what? Thats kind of important to
>> figurring the value of the deal."
> 
> And how much do those "pounds" weigh, anyway?  Still about a pint?
> 
> All kidding aside, at least you have a pretty good idea that it's British
> currency at issue; with "dollars" it could be US, Panamanian, Australian,
> Hong Kong, or any of a number of other places whose local currency is "the
> dollar" but whose dollars have wildly differeing values.  I think there are
> even a couple of places in the world outside the USA whose legal tender is
> the US dollar ... Liberia and Belize, maybe?

Not true, the UK has no monopoly on the pound as the currency unit (guineas
might've worked, though). Just off the top of my head, both Egypt and Turkey
also have pounds. That's why using international currency symbols such as USD
or UKP is a good habit - and not just because the UKP typographical symbol is
frequently mangled in character set translation.

Besides, the UKP indeed has its origins as a `pound of sterling', i.e. of
silver pennies, so the answer to the original question is quite obvious. It
hasn't had that relationship with silver weight for the last 500 or so years,
though.


-- 

        later,
        Stephen

Stephen Wolthusen (stephen at wolthusen.com)