Is it UK Pounds, GB Pounds or Pounds Sterling?

[RichB]

OK Chaps, I am working the UK version of my companies price list for it's software. The marketing director is French and he has just asked me if it is correct to say the all prices are in... UK Pounds, British Pounds or Pounds Sterling?

We have checked the FT web site and currency converters and it seems there are occurrences of all three!

What do you reckon is most correct/sounds best? Rich...

p.s. I'll go first and say I prefer UK Pounds.


>>> Edited by RichB on Thursday 18th March 22:01

[hut49]

Everything financial that comes through to me from my US employer uses GBP.

I regularly use www.xe.com/ucc/ to convert and this too has GBP but interestingly refers to this as UK Pounds!

[JonRB]

I have always understood the official currency of this country to be Pounds Sterling.

[RichB]

That highlights the confusion! 2 x replies and alreday all three names used for the same currency. And as I found GBP is referred to as UK Pounds. R...

[jeremyc]

GBP

[RichB]

Thanks Jeremy, GB Pounds it is then. Rich...

psst. anyone wanna' buy an SQL data-extraction tool

[JonRB]

GBP is a widely used abbreviation and is widely recognised and understood. It is used extensively where a £ sign might get stripped out. UKP also.

However, I maintain that the correct name of our currency is "Sterling" or "Pounds Sterling".

You don't hear the newsreader say "On the money markets, UK Pounds rose against the dollar for the third time".

Having said that, if you go to Bloomberg you'll see GBP and "British Pounds" referred to, so I'm rapidly getting as confused as you are.

[simpo two]

My 4p-worth is that they're all the same. 'GBP' is just a convenient abbreviation which everyone who deals with currency understands - I think every currency has a 3-letter abbreviation so that people can define them quickly and accurately.

[eric mc]

Pound Sterling or £ Sterling is the official term. However, because of the increased use of computers over the past two or three decades, GP Pounds has become a common alternative. Many non UK keyboards or versions of software are not configured to show the "£" sign properly.

[DanL]

I work for a banking software firm - we use GBP as an abbreviation, with the currency description as "Sterling".

Dan

[cr1]

Also used to write s/w for systems in the finance world...
"GBP" is the ISO identifier (ISO-4217) for Pounds Sterling.
Also valid is the numeric code "826".

God that takes me back...

[JonRB]

So I was right then. Woohoo! I get a brownie point.

[M@H]

DanL said:

I work for a banking software firm - we use GBP as an abbreviation, with the currency description as "Sterling". Dan

so do I... we do the same.. although metioned earlier, UKP in our world is not Pounds it's UK pence and used for stock prices etc.

Cheers,
Matt.

>> Edited by M@H on Friday 19th March 13:12

[JonRB]

M@H said:

so do I

Is that Marlborough Stirling?

[simpo two]

M@H said:

so do I... we do the same.. although metioned earlier, UKP in our world is not Pounds it's UK pence and used for stock prices etc.

You might be able to take advantage of the confusion and get a 100-fold return. Oh you do already!

[M@H]

JonRB said:

M@H said: so do I Is that Marlborough Stirling?

Nope.