Why do we write �10 and not 10�

[THECORBYLOON]

If i write tuppence as a figure I write 2p, so why, when wrting pounds, do we write �10 and not 10�?

[Quizmonster]

The earliest recorded use of the '�' - 'L' for 'libra' - was over three hundred years ago and it was indeed written then as "20 �". Like so many other English usages, this has simply changed over the intervening years.

[THECORBYLOON]

Morning QM y'aright? It may have changed but why only pounds and not shillings and pence? If folk changed the order, would the same folk not have changed the order of the shillings and pence?

[Ethel]

It would be very awkward writing 2�10

Does that mean �2.10 or 2 x 10�?

Likewise 2�10p

Putting the � first indicates that the following numbers are pounds and pence - gives the brain an early warning.

[THECORBYLOON]

As QM wrote, folk used to write 10�, We write 10lbs 10oz and not lbs10 oz10 and we write 10' 10" not '10 "10 so what is the difference?
We used to write 2/6 meaning two shillings and sixpence rather than two sixths so to write 2� 10 would not be confusing since it would be understood from the context.

[Quizmonster]

TCL, there was a reference to a job in an issue of The Law Journal in 1885 which paid (quote) "a salary of 4� a week", so it seems the changeover was relatively recent. I wonder whether the $ sign may have influenced it. Was it always put before the figure? If so, the movement of the '�' may have been an attempt to present the two currencies in a similar format. Over to you.

(Incidentally, aye, Ah'm daein' a' richt.)

[Peter Pedant]

I like the 1885 ref

apparently the Victorians would also write 100 000 l

sorry that last thing is a small (lower case) el 'L'

and this was also for libra - pounds

SOby implication, the L with a line through it is early twentieth century