£
£ Pound Sign
The pound sign (£) is the currency symbol for pounds sterling — not to be confused with #, which Americans also call the pound sign.
Also known as: pound sign, pound symbol, pound sterling symbol, gbp symbol.
Codes
| Symbol | £ | |
| Number sign | # · U+0023 | |
| Unicode | U+00A3 | |
| HTML entity (named) | £ | |
| HTML entity (decimal) | £ | |
| HTML entity (hex) | £ | |
| CSS | \00A3 | |
| LaTeX | \pounds | |
| Windows Alt code | Alt + 0163 |
How to type £ (Pound Sign)
WindowsAlt + 0163
Hold Alt and type 0163 on the numeric keypad — the leading zero matters. On a UK layout, Shift + 3 types £ directly.
Mac⌥ + 3
Press Option + 3 on a US layout. On a UK layout it is Shift + 3.
Microsoft Word00A3, Alt + X
Type 00A3, then press Alt + X to convert it to £.
Google Docs
Insert → Special characters, then search “pound”.
LaTeX\pounds
Use \pounds (built in), or \textsterling with \usepackage{textcomp}.
Usage
- The pound sign goes before the amount: £25.50. The ISO 4217 code is GBP.
- Which one to use: “pound sign” means two different characters. The currency is £ (U+00A3). But in US phone menus — “press the pound key” — and in programming, the pound sign means # (U+0023), properly called the number sign, hash, or octothorpe.
- £ comes from the Latin libra (a Roman unit of weight), which is also why pounds of weight are abbreviated lb.
- The one- and two-crossbar forms (£ vs ₤) are stylistic; ₤ (U+20A4) is a separate legacy character you rarely need.