POUND = LBS

In addition, "pound" comes from the Latin word pondus meaning "weight"

Also to note:

You're talking pounds avoirdupoids (lb), as distinct from pounds sterling (£).

Libra = Lira = Peso = Shekel = Pound etc. are all weight measures. They are all used as monetary units. as well as force or gravity units.

The reason is being that historically goods were changed for value metals, gold, silver copper etc, per their weights. The instrument used to measure weights was the Libra hence the name. Lbs. is a much later convenience abbreviation.

Zodiac sign...Libra

Wangito.

Hello possum,

How are you?................... I searched and found this. I have not read any posts yet so appologise if it is duplicated..................

"Why are pounds, as a weight, abbreviated lbs?"

The origin is in the Latin word libra, which could mean both balance scales (hence the symbol for the astrological sign Libra, which was named after a constellation that was thought to resemble scales) and also a pound weight, for which the full expression was libra pondo, the second word being the origin of our pound.

Interesting? I think so. Thank you for asking!

Take care,..........................

Before decimalization in the UK, the money was thought to be very strange (correctly so!) by most visitors:-

240 (old) pence were worth £1 and weighed 1 lb. Which also gave rise to the measure of weigh called a "Pennyweight"! Still used in some professions. (Don't ask me which!)

120 2 penny pieces were worth £1 and weighed 1 lb.

10 Florins (2 shilling pieces) were worth £1 and weighed 1 lb.

8 Half crowns (2 shillings and 6 pence pieces) were worth £1 and weighed 1 lb.

4 Crowns (5 shilling piece) were worth £1 and weighed 1 lb.

This not only gave the normal folk a good method of weighing something accurately by supplying accurate weights, it also gave them a method to make sure that coins were also of the correct weight as most were silver and valuable too in their own right......

The strange way our weights, measures and money worked meant it was easy for me and UK persons of a similar age or older) to understand the various forms of and to think Binary. Binary is base 2, Octal is base 8 and Hex is base 16. All this never bothered us, but folks from countries where EVERYTHING was base 10, had problems, as do younger UK folks today!

It is interesting that 1 Imperial Pound is aproximately 453.592 Grams, even in Germany, Marmalade and Jams are still sold in UK pounds, even today.....I believe in most of Europe too....

An interesting web page that also shows all the other Ancient Weights & Measures, some are enough to turn you hair white! Can be found at:-

Ancient Weights & Measures

Good one Andy.

And then wonder why the mainlanders call the English strange (oops off topic)

You are not off topic, the English can be.

By the way, I am British, not English!!

Quite frankly Andy: I think your memory must be fading a bit: an old penny (1d) weighed a lot more than a shilling (12d)

"Copper" coins:- farthing (¼d), haypenny (ha'penny, halfpenny, ½d) and penny coins could be bagged up together and weighed for value. (The farthing went out of circulation long before decimalisation.)

"Silver" coins:- sixpenny, one shilling, two shilling and half crowns could also be bagged up together (crowns also fell into the same category but weren't in common circulation).

The thrupenny (three penny, 3d) was the twelve sided maverick.

There was never (twentieth century at least) an old 2 penny (2d) coin. (I believe that in the very dim and distant past there was a 4d coin: a groat)

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/moneyold.htm

If you took 240 old copper pennies, they weighed an imperial pound! And were worth 1 Pound Sterling.

Some links that may help further....

http://www.goldprice.org/buy-silver/2006/03/british-silver-coins.html

http://www.24carat.co.uk/silvercontentofcoinsframe.html

Have a great day.

Hello Andy,

8 Half crowns (2 shillings and 6 pence pieces) were worth £1 and weighed 1 lb.

I like your figures, but they are not close to being correct. I used the half crown and many is the time I had 8 or more in my change back then, They certainly did not weigh 2.5 ounces each!

I am looking to find exactly how much they and other coins you mentioned weighed. No offence OK? It sounds great! But isn't.

Take care and will be back when I can find the details.

I know that when the silver went, so did some of the weight.....but the old copper coins were used in weighing, of that I am sure......

Maybe my memory is not completely correct with regards to the silver coinage and weight, it is a long time ago......

Hi, Andy, this site seems to have a good list of coin weights - too tired now to do the conversions grams:lbs, but the table should be cut'n'pasteable into a spreadsheet.

At first glance, looks like 3d - 6d - 1s - 2s - 2½s - 5s seem to all be weight-related, with 5s (1 crown) at 28.3g = 1oz, giving £1 weighing 4oz.

Regards, John.

Thanks John,

So:

the "old" copper "coppers" were 10lb/£

the "new" bronze "coppers" were 5lb/£

the "silver" coins (including the groat issued until 1855) were ¼lb/£

Although the "silver" thruppenny bit was legal tender until decimalisation, the only time I ever saw one was in a Christmas pudding; the twelve sided nickel-bronze one was common tender and weighed ...........1.2 lb/£

The table you linked went back to the early eighteen hundreds: I would guess you'd have to go back several devaluations of the £ to get to the time when a silver was worth a £/lb (and the coins reflected this).

A good web site.

Hello Andy,

May be you're a Poet and don't know it?

A poet with a bad memory?

Hello Andy,

A poet with 'perhap' a bad memory. You were correct in the bit about the king and pound of silver. And what you say may have applied then? But, it does not quite scan these days. I have written to the Royal Mint to ask the weights. So we will soon see. I know they was other sites about here but some of the sites I went to said different weights.

Did you know the Royal Mint was working in the Tower of London up until the late 1960's? They used three sides of the walls. The space between the outer wall and the inner one. Works out to be about 400' ...........I will let the reader figure out the metre length.

Take care.