Yes, it really was tried out, but wasn’t accepted, unsurprisingly.
BTW one pound is actually 453.592 grams, and maybe a little bit different (precision does matter in some circumstances, rocketry being one).
Though the inch became metricated, for convenience, so now is precisely 25.4 mm. A sad day, though perhaps Kings thumbs widths were not thought to be as precise as laser interferometers (or bars of metal kept in Parisian vaults).
As for the pound sterling (as opposed to a pound of sterling silver), see: Pound sterling - Wikipedia
It’s still the third most important trading currency in the world, after the dollar and the euro (pah).
And by no means a lame duck, if anything becoming rather too strong for my liking. It seems many still see it as something to be relied on, in times of turmoil. Doesn’t help export businesses or the tourist trade though, the days of dollar/euro/pound parity are long gone. The Swiss Franc (they were also never so stupid as to join in to the Euro nonsense) is an extreme example of this problem, also far too strong. I remember when there were four to £1
Even give me a Krone of any Scandinavian source (perhaps not Icelandic), over the Euro.
Meanwhile happy to have between 12% or 28% more money in my pocket than a few years ago.
“Names
The full official name pound sterling (plural: pounds sterling), is used mainly in formal contexts and also when it is necessary to distinguish the United Kingdom currency from other currencies with the same name. Otherwise the term pound is normally used. The currency name is sometimes abbreviated to just sterling, particularly in the wholesale financial markets, but not when referring to specific amounts; for example, ”Payment is accepted in sterling” but never “These cost five sterling”. The abbreviations “ster.” and “stg.” are sometimes used. The term “British pound” is sometimes incorrectly used in less formal contexts, and it is not an official name of the currency.
The exchange rate of the pound sterling against the US Dollar is referred to as “cable” in the wholesale foreign exchange markets. The origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the GBP/USD exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Forex traders of GBP/USD are sometimes referred to as “cable dealers”.[15] GBP/USD is now the only currency pair with its own name in the foreign exchange markets, after IEP/USD, known as “wire” particularly in the forward FX markets, no longer exists after the Irish Pound was replaced by the euro in 1999.
There is apparent convergence of opinion[citation needed] regarding the origin of the term “pound sterling”, toward its derivation from the name of a small Norman silver coin,[16] and away from its association with Easterlings (Germanic traders) or other etymologies.[17][18] Hence, the Oxford English Dictionary (and sources derived therefrom)[19][20] state that the “most plausible” etymology is derivation from the Old English steorra for “star” with the added diminutive suffix “-ling”, to mean “little star” and to refer to a silver penny of the English Normans.[16] As another established source notes,[21] the compound expression was then derived:
silver coins known as “sterlings” were issued in the Saxon kingdoms, 240 of them being minted from a pound of silver… Hence, large payments came to be reckoned in “pounds of sterlings,” a phrase later shortened…
— Encyclopædia Britannica, entry “pound sterling”
However, the perceived narrow window of the issuance of this coin, and the fact that coin designs changed frequently in the period in question, led Philip Grierson to reject this in favour of a more complex theory.[22]
Another argument that the Hanseatic League was the origin for both the origin of its definition and manufacture, and in its name is that the German name for the Baltic is “Ost See”, or “East Sea”, and from this the Baltic merchants were called “Osterlings”, or “Easterlings”. In 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called “Easterlings Hall”, or Esterlingeshalle.[23] Because the League’s money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the “Easterlings”, which was contracted to “’sterling”.[24]
For further discussion of the etymology of “sterling”, see sterling silver.”
BTW, Continentals measure their “fuel consumption” in litres/100 km, which is just upside down to me. Bigger numbers = better, I think. If it takes me 1/10 of the trip meter reading in miles, to fill my tank in litres, then I know I doing at least 45 mpg (in imperial gallons, not the little ones, actually 45.4609 mpg), which is decent.
