Pound Sterling Encyclopedia and the Currencies used in Great Britain and Canada
Great Britain and Canada are the two most familiar countries to Americans outside of America. Both regions have their own currencies. Great Britain pays homage to the pound sterling encyclopedia while Canada uses the Canadian dollar encyclopedia for carrying out their financial transactions. Both currencies have a unique origin history.
Great Britain and Canada both has ties to the United States and millions of Americans travel to these regions each year. Although the American dollar is the currency appointed to the position of global reserve currency, it is typically much easier to convert one’s money to whatever the currency of the region is. It is important to note that Great Britain and the United Kingdom are not one and the same, and in fact have different currencies. The Pound sterling is used in Great Britain and is codified as GBP. The sterling part of the name stems from the fact that the pound was valued as being worth a pound of sterling silver. The pound is distributed through the Bank of England, which was established in 1694. Scotland and Ireland, countries that are part of the United Kingdom, use their own versions of the pound, which is why the Great Britain pound is not the United Kingdom pound. These countries are not part of the Euro zone; hence they do not use the Euro as their currency. The pound sterling is used throughout England, its territories, and parts of Africa. A full list can be found in a pound sterling encyclopedia entry. One pound notes are less used than one dollar bills are in the American currency system.
Canada, America’s neighbor to the north, uses the Canadian dollar, which is abbreviated CAD and utilizes $ or C$ as the symbol. It is distributed by the Bank of Canada. Like the American dollar, it is split into cent units with 100 cents equaling one dollar. Canada is actually subject to British rule, but a series of events occurred that made the Canadian monetary system more similar to the American system rather than the British. As stated by Canadian dollar encyclopedia, the Canadian Dollar has been in use since 1858 when Canada begin issuing coins on a decimal based monetary system in the hopes of fostering trade. The term “loonie” in reference to a Canadian dollar stems from image of the common loon being printed on the dollar coin. The common loon is the unofficial national bird of Canada, which has not yet officially named a national bird. A Canadian dollar encyclopedia gives a full history of the adoption and use of the Canadian dollar. Both the pound sterling and the Canadian dollar use a system of paper money and coins. Both currencies are also used widely on a global scale, although not as widely as the Euro or American dollar have spread. Both currencies have a longer history than the Euro and the pound sterling was around before America became an independent nation.
For more about the pound sterling check out Pound Sterling Encyclopedia and visit Canadian Dollar Encyclopedia for the Canadian dollar.
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