@myphotojourney5: Where do the symbols £ and $ come from? The £ symbol goes all the way back to the Romans. The word pound comes from the Latin phrase libra pondo, meaning "a pound by weight". The symbol £ is actually a stylised letter L from libra, which is also why the abbreviation for pounds in weight is lb. The $ symbol has a different story. Before the USA became independent, the American colonies commonly used the Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight or peso. The $ sign is believed to have developed from handwritten abbreviations for the Spanish peso. But the word dollar isn't Spanish at all. It comes from the Thaler, a famous silver coin named after the town of Joachimsthal (now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic). Over time, Thaler became Dollar in English. So every time you see £ and $, you're looking at the remains of Roman, Spanish and German history hidden in modern money. #Etymology #LanguageHistory #HistoryTok #EnglishLanguage #WordOrigins #PoundSterling #Dollar #OldEnglish #LearnOnTikTok #DidYouKnow

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Sunday 04 October 2026 16:00:00 GMT