The events of the 23rd episode of the series “Beit Al-Rifai” by the star Amir Karara, which is shown on the ON channel and the Watch it platform, revealed that Yassin “Amir Karara” distributed the dollars he found in his father’s safe to his brothers and friends, Saeed and Bazra, only to be surprised by the return of Bedra, which he said on his coin. The dollar is sterling, so what is the history of the pound sterling?
The report published in the British newspaper “The Telegraph” confirmed that the pound sterling is 1,200 years old, and was born around 775 AD, when “sterling” or silver pennies were the main currency in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
If you had 240 pieces, you weighed one pound – an enormous fortune in the 8th century, which inflation only put within reach of many people in the 17th century. Pennies were minted to ward off Viking raiders by paying protection money or danegeld.
A century and a half later, Athelstan, the first king of England, established a chain of mints throughout his fledgling nation, standardizing the output in the Gretley Code of 928 and establishing the pound sterling as the national currency.
Curiously, the name ‘sterling’ took some time to appear, the first mention – ‘sterilensis’ in 1078 – dating back to the days of William the Conqueror, who also introduced the shilling – £20 – into his new kingdom. The name became popular only in the 13th century.
Their origins were lost over time. Stars and starlings appeared on minted coins or “sterling” coins, but no one knows if either of them gave their names to the coin. Orientals, or merchants and money-changers of the early Middle Ages, are another possible source for the name.
Either way, the name stuck, linked to the meaning of “ster” in Old German—strong, pure, stable, reliable, or excellent. English silver was respected and this respect was worth maintaining.
In 1124, a disgusted Henry I ordered the castration of 94 mint workers for producing bad coins. “This was the first, and certainly the bloodiest, of a series of attempts made over the centuries to restore confidence in the pound,” Nicholas Mayhew wrote in his book Sterling: The Rise and Fall of the Currency.
The pound sterling retained its importance throughout the Middle Ages. Before the founding of the Bank of England, the Tower of London served as a storehouse for surplus money. Silver pennies were the only currency until the 13th century, and silver was the standard currency until the 18th century, when gold became the basis of the pound.
Bank of England and paper money
In 1694, King William III established the Bank of England to finance his battle with France. Goldsmiths had issued banknotes – promises of payment in exchange for gold deposits – since the 16th century, but although the Bank of England was the first central bank in history, it had no Always have exclusive control of the British pound.
Banks in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales printed notes, along with affiliated banks, but only those more than 65 miles from London. Crime quickly arrived on the tail of the note.
By 1695 the first fraud had occurred. Authorities fined Daniel Berrismore for counterfeiting 60 £100 notes, a large sum in the late 17th century. The bank introduced a watermark to stop fraud, and the Crown introduced the death penalty for counterfeiting.
The bank provided stability, but the pound continued to suffer from market ups and downs. The first £10 note was printed in 1759, when the Seven Years’ War caused a severe gold shortage. Inflationary fears from the war with France led to the first £5 note being issued in 1793.
The same Republican threat caused a series of withdrawals from the bank in 1797, ushering in a period of financial restrictions, which lasted until 1821. At that time the Irish playwright Richard Bryncel Sheridan angrily described the bank as “an old lady in town”.
Sterling banknotes were originally handwritten, although banknotes have been partially printed since 1725, and tellers still have to sign and take notes for someone. The bank began printing banknotes in 1855, no doubt to the relief of its workers. .
The series “House of Al-Rifai” is based on the conflicts between the family over inheritance and managing their business. The promo revealed two families of cousins who have a large house in Nazlet El-Semman. Karara lives far from the family and their business because he is not satisfied with it, but he finds himself in conflict with his cousin Ahmed. Rizk is appointed leader of the family, and at the same time he is accused of killing his father and is forced to flee.
