The Money of the United Kingdom
The official currency of the United Kingdom is the pound sterling. You will often see it written with the symbol £, and its three-letter code in international finance is GBP. A single pound is divided into 100 smaller units called pence. While many of its European neighbors switched to the euro, the United Kingdom kept its own historic currency.
The Oldest Currency Still in Use
One remarkable fact about the pound sterling is its age. It is widely recognized as the oldest currency in the world that is still in use today, with roots stretching back well over a thousand years. The name itself comes from history: long ago, an amount of money equal to one pound was based on the weight of one pound of sterling silver. That old connection between weight and value gave the currency its lasting name.
Pounds, Pence, and Nicknames
In everyday life, British money comes in a familiar set of coins and banknotes. Coins range from one penny up to two pounds, while paper banknotes come in larger values such as five, ten, twenty, and fifty pounds. The currency has also collected some colorful slang along the way. The most common nickname for a pound is a "quid," a word used constantly in casual British speech, much as people elsewhere might say "buck" for a dollar.
Source
This article was written using information from Wikipedia.