: What does a "normal" British pound sign look like? I'm working on creating a glyph for the British pound sterling for a typeface I'm working on, and I realized that not only is it a bit

@Kaufman565

Probably the best way to understand and get a feel for a 'normal' pound sign is to practice handwriting them, until you've got a sense of what comes naturally from the essential form and what is within normal variation.

As I learned it as a UK schoolkid (this is me thinking step-by-step about what I do when I do it without thinking about it, so may not be totally typical but should be close enough to be useful):


Start at the top, curl it round it round like a back-to-front question mark
Reach the bottom of the stem, go left a bit to assert a baseline then take the baseline out right to more-or-less match the top of the curl - this may or may not result in a small loop
Take pen off paper and add a very small quick crossbar half way, crossing through the stem


Most of the flourishes and variation are within normal variation for how it is hand-drawn. Sometimes the [reaches for typography textbook, fails to find relevant term] serif-like foot thing at the bottom left is a loop, sometimes the stem curves to meet it and sometimes it's a straight right angle because the pen goes out there when it reaches the bottom of the stem then doubles back on itself without leaving the page. The stroke width usually thins a bit here, as the pressure on the pen usually drops a bit - this bit is a common flourish rather than an essential feature.

The key essential thing here is that the bottom corner is a very sharp corner, in contrast with the curve at the top. The top curve of the stem must be unambiguously curvy and the crossbar must pass through the stem (not start at the stem) as this is what differentiates it from an E. There are additional common optional features that are within the normal variation in handwriting that can be added to a typeface to make the difference between £ and E clearer, as necessary - the bottom left foot thing, a downward curl at the top right starting point, and a kink bringing the stem back in towards the centre like a backwards ?.

There's sometimes a serif or a [reaches for typography textbook, fails to find relevant term] bold blob thing at the top right because that's where pen initially meets paper, and there's sometimes a serif flick at the bottom right because that's where pen leaves paper. There's never normally an upward serif at the bottom left because the pen just turns there, it doesn't leave the page.

The crossbar is usually a thin perfectly straight line even if everything else is highly styled because it's a separate pen stroke - a quick even sidewards flick before moving on to the next character. Most of the variation in width is what would happen if that first pen stroke was done in a calligraphic way.

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@Ravi4787994

So, as Joonas mentions, the sign is apparently a capital letter L, with one or two crossbars to show that it is being used as a symbol or abbreviation. The L stands for the Latin word libra, the name of a Roman unit of weight, which also gave rise to the abbreviation lb for a pound as a measure of weight, and to the French word livre (source).

The first £10 note was printed in 1759, when the Seven Years War caused severe gold shortages (inflation fears of war with France led to the first £5 note in 1793).

Unfortunately, the images I could find for those ones just write the word "pound":



But in the 1800s you can see a very decorated pound symbol, based on the calligraphic style of the time (bottom left corner):





So as Scott mentions, there isn't a "normal" way of writing it, other than maybe "calligraphic uppercase" or Blackletter.

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@Murray976

Beyond the basic structure of the form, I don't think there is a "normal" of any type character. It's all merely a typeface choice. Like a dollar sign, the Pound has the same basic structure, bottom and middle stroke with a vertical that curves to form the top stroke. After all what does a "normal" T look like??? Doesn't that all depends upon the typeface?



There's as much variation in US Dollar Signs as there is the Pound. Does the middle vertical go through the center of the dollar sign or stop at the "S" shape? Are there two verticals or one? Are there curls on the end of the "S" shape? I think all these variations are equally present on the Pound symbol.

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