The pound sterling is the world's oldest currency still in use and which has been in continuous usage since its inception.
Prior to 1971, one pound was subdivided into 20 shillings and each shilling into 12 pence, making 240 pence to the pound.
While it has technically been the same currency since 770 (i.e. it has only evolved but was never replaced with another currency for twelve and a half centuries), it has been separately listed for the purposes of this site as several currencies. This is done for convenience only (there would be too many coins listed for one currency otherwise) as well as for consistency - while the currency itself did not change, the country did; from Anglo-Saxon England it became (Norman) England, then Great Britain, then the United Kingdom of today. | 
