Editing Pound sign (section)

==Origin==
The symbol derives from the upper case [[Latin letter]] {{char|L}}, representing ''libra pondo'', the basic unit of weight in the [[Roman Empire]], which in turn is derived from the [[Latin]] word ''libra'', meaning [[Weighing scale|scales]] or a balance. The pound became an [[Kingdom of England|English]] unit of weight and in England became defined as the [[Pound (weight)#Tower pound|tower pound]] (equivalent to 350 grams) of [[sterling silver]].<ref name= "ViewOfCoinage">{{cite book|title=A View of the Silver Coin and Coinage of England from the Norman Conquest to the Present Time|publisher=T. Snelling|date= 1762| author = Thomas Snelling |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_12AGAAAAQAAJ |page=ii |access-date=19 September 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dozenalsociety.org.uk/history/poundhist.html |title=A brief history of the pound |publisher=The Dozenal Society of Great Britain |access-date=2011-01-14 |archive-date=2020-11-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112000041/http://www.dozenalsociety.org.uk/history/poundhist.html |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the [[Royal Mint Museum]]:
{{quote |It is not known for certain when the horizontal line or lines, which indicate an abbreviation,{{efn|See [[scribal abbreviations]]}} first came to be drawn through the L. However, there is in the [[Bank of England Museum]] a cheque dated 7 January 1661 with a clearly discernible £ sign. By the time the Bank was founded in 1694 the £ sign was in common use.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/Default.aspx?PageID=14314417 | title=The Origins of £sd | publisher=The Royal Mint Museum |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200308111135/http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/Default.aspx?PageID=14314417 |archive-date= 8 March 2020}}</ref>}}

However, the simple letter L, in lower- or uppercase, was used to represent the pound in printed books and newspapers until well into the 19th century.<ref>For example, {{cite web | url = https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Diary_of_Samuel_Pepys/1660/January | title = Diary of Samuel Pepys/1660/January | author = Samuel Pepys | date = 2 January 1660 | access-date = 23 September 2019 | archive-date = 23 September 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190923210619/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Diary_of_Samuel_Pepys/1660/January | url-status = live }} ''Then I went to Mr. Crew's and borrowed L10 of Mr. Andrewes for my own use, and so went to my office, where there was nothing to do''.</ref> In the [[blackletter]] type used until the seventeenth century,<ref>{{Cite book|title=An introduction to the history of printing types; an illustrated summary of main stages in the development of type design from 1440 up to the present day: an aid to type face identification.|last=Dowding|first=Geoffrey|publisher=Wace|year=1962|location=Clerkenwell [London]|pages=5}}</ref> the letter L is rendered as <math>\mathfrak{L}</math>.