Pound

The basic unit of the Carolingian system

The pound was not, in the Carolingian system, a currency currently minted, but the fundamental unit of weight and account on which the entire medieval monetary organization was built. The Carolingian system was in fact based on the triad pound - soldo - denier: one pound was equivalent to 20 soldi and 240 deniers.

From a practical point of view, the currency actually circulating was above all the denier, while the pound remained the superior theoretical reference. This does not reduce its importance: on the contrary, the pound was the measure that gave coherence to the entire system, both from a weight and an accounting point of view.

In this sense, the pound performed a function similar to that of the large units of account which, even in later times, made it possible to organize the relationships between real coins, submultiples and multiples.

Fundamental relationships

From pound to lira

The name of the Italian lira derives from the pound. In medieval Latin and in the Romance languages, the term for the large unit of account was progressively transformed: from libra it passed in various areas to forms such as livre, lira and other local variants.

In the Italian area, the lira established itself as the name of the main unit of account and then, in different eras, also of real coins. The continuity is not only linguistic: the structure of the system, based on the relationship between the major unit, intermediate submultiple and base currency, also clearly shows the derivation from the Carolingian model.

When we talk about the Italian lira, therefore, we are not just referring to a modern or pre-euro currency, but to a long historical tradition that starts from the medieval pound as the superior unit of the monetary system.

The pound and the “lira sterlina”

The Italian expression lira sterlina also refers to the same conceptual root. In English the British currency is the pound sterling: the term pound in fact means pound. In Italian, to translate this idea, the formula lira sterlina was used for a long time, where "lira" played the role of linguistic equivalent of the pound as a major unit of account.

The British pound sterling thus retains, even in its name, the link with the system based on the pound. Before decimalisation in 1971, the pound sterling was in fact divided into 20 shillings and 240 pence, a structure that directly recalls the Carolingian model of 20 soldi and 240 deniers.

For this reason the pound is not only a technical element of medieval coinage, but also the point of origin of a genealogy that leads on the one hand to the Italian lira and on the other to the lira sterlina, that is, to the Italian rendering of the pound sterling.

Monetary genealogy of the pound

The Carolingian pound was not normally a minted coin, but a large unit of weight and account. Precisely for this reason it occupies a central position in the European monetary genealogy: from it derives the structure that will lead, in different forms, to the Italian lira and the British pound sterling.

An unminted, but decisive coin

The fact that the pound was primarily a unit of account and not a currency of ordinary use does not diminish its numismatic importance. On the contrary, this very theoretical nature makes it a central concept for understanding the organization of medieval monetary systems and their modern legacies.

The pound therefore represents the summit of the Carolingian system, the foundation of the lira in the Italian area and the linguistic and structural reference that also helps to understand the British pound sterling.

Related pages

• Carolingian system
• soldo
• denier
• Lira
• pound sterling

Essential data

Monetary genealogy

The pound is neither a Roman coin nor a commonly minted medieval coin, but a large theoretical unit linking the Carolingian system to later European monetary traditions. From it derive, on a historical and linguistic level, the Italian lira and the lira sterlina.