The turmoil in the British currency was nothing new and had a tumultuous ride on its 1,200 year existence.

• Real-time formation of pound was unknown but evidence suggests that the pound was already in circulation during the Anglo-Saxon period. The Tealby penny was in circulation in the Middle Ages and was the standard unit used until the 20th century.
• In 1552, silver coinage was introduced made of sterling silver.
• In 1663, gold coinage was introduced. The silver coinage remained and was used for importing goods; gold was used for exporting goods. This made Britain a gold standard country.
• The first paper money was issued in 1694, after the Bank of England was established.
• In 1861, the gold standard was adopted again.
• In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the gold standard was abandoned and treasury notes became legal tender.
• In 1940, the Pound was pegged to the US Dollar and later became part of the Bretton Woods system.
• In 1971, the Pound was changed to a free-floating currency.
• In 1976, the country had a Sterling crisis.
• In 1988, the UK Treasury instituted a policy whereby movements of the British Pound “shadowed” those of the German Mark.
• In 1990, the UK became part of the European Exchange rate mechanism, but withdrew in 1992.

The UK had the option to adopt the Euro in 1999, but declined.

For more than 300 years the Bank of England has been the authority issuing pound banknotes, and all along this time these notes have suffered many changes. The first pound coin did not appear until 1489, under the reign of Henry VII. Pound banknotes started circulating in England shortly after the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694, and were originally handwritten notes. The pound functioned with its complicated system of shillings and pennies until the arrival of the decimal system in 1971.

In 1660 coin minting was mechanized and features in its design such as the side lettering were introduced to help eradicate money-clipping.

The pound sterling has survived as an independent currency while most of the rest of Europe adopted the euro as single currency, which at the beginning of the 21st century seemed the likely destiny of the pound sterling too.

Regarding the “pound scots”, it existed until the 1707 Union Act created a new monetary system based on the value of the pound south of the Scottish border. The Bank of Scotland was created in 1695, just one year after the Bank of England, and it still survives today as part of HBOS, a subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, based in Edinburgh.

Sterling spread over most of the British Empire. In some areas, it was used in conjunction with local currencies. For example, gold sovereignty was legal in Canada despite the use of the Canadian dollar. Many colonies and dominions adopted the pound as their own currency. These included Australia, Barbados, British West Africa, Cyprus, Fiji, British India, the Irish Free State, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. Some of these retained parity with sterling throughout their existence (e.g. the South African pound), while others deviated from parity after the end of the gold standard (e.g. the Australian pound). These currencies and others tied to sterling constituted the sterling area.

The original English colonies on mainland North America were not party to the sterling area because the above-mentioned silver shortage in England coincided with these colonies’ formative years. As a result of equitable trade (and rather less equitable piracy), the Spanish milled dollar became the most common coin within the English colonies.