Currency symbols · U+A3

£Pound symbol

£ is the Pound character. It is text, not a picture — it takes the colour of the type around it and pastes into anything.

How to type it
Unicode
U+A3
Alt code
Alt+163
HTML
£
Unicode name
Pound Sign
£
Your font
01 — Origin

Where the Pound symbol comes from

The pound sign is a crossed letter L, for the Latin libra — a Roman pound of weight. The currency inherited the name and the mark from a system where money was literally reckoned in weight of silver, which is also where the abbreviation lb for pounds weight comes from.

Sterling prices, always before the number and with no space: £9.99. The same crossed-L logic produced the lira sign ₤, which is a different character with two strokes.

Worth knowing
Confusingly, Americans call # the “pound sign” — a different character with a different history, from the same libra abbreviation written ℔ and eventually simplified.
02 — Codes

Pound symbol codes

Tap any value to copy it. All of them produce the same character — they just belong to different places.

03 — How to type

How to type £ on any keyboard

Four ways, depending on what you are working in.

Windows
Hold Alt and type 163 on the numeric keypad, then release. Without a keypad, use the Character Map app (search “charmap”).
Mac
Press Control + Command + Space to open the character viewer, then search “pound”. Double-click to insert.
Phone
There is no shortcut on a phone keyboard. Tap the symbol at the top of this page, then long-press in any text field and choose Paste.
Web and code
In HTML write £ or £. In CSS content: "\00A3". Make sure the page is served as UTF-8 and the raw character works too.
04 — Font support

Will £ actually show up?

We checked 147 fonts installed on a normal machine and counted how many of them contain this character. A symbol missing from a font is drawn as an empty box — the text is still correct, it just cannot be drawn.

97% 143 of 147 fonts

Safe everywhere. This one is in almost every font ever installed, including the defaults on Windows, Mac and Android.

05 — Similar

Symbols people confuse with £

These look alike but are different characters — different codes, different fonts, sometimes different meaning.

¢ Cent SignU+A2 · has its own page $ Dollar SignU+24 · has its own page ¥ Yen SignU+A5 · has its own page
06 — Related

Other currency symbols

The rest of the family, one page each — origin, typing routes and font support, across all 5.

¥ Yen symbolIn 98% of system fonts ₹ Rupee symbolIn 42% of system fonts ¢ Cent symbolIn 97% of system fonts € Euro symbolIn 94% of system fonts $ Dollar symbolIn 97% of system fonts
07 — Same block

Currency symbols

Every currency sign, from the euro to the rupee and the bitcoin.

All currency symbols →
08 — FAQ

Pound symbol — questions

How do I type the Pound symbol?
On Windows hold Alt and type 163 on the numeric keypad. On Mac open the character viewer with Control + Command + Space and search “Pound”. Or just tap the symbol on this page — it goes straight to your clipboard.
What is the HTML code for £?
Write it as £ or £ in HTML, \00A3 in CSS content, and \u00A3 in JavaScript. All four produce the same character.
Is £ an emoji?
No. £ is a text character — it takes the colour of the text around it and works in usernames, filenames and documents. An emoji is replaced by a colour picture and is sometimes stripped by forms and systems.
Why does £ show as a box on some devices?
Because that font has no drawing for this character. We checked 147 fonts on a normal machine and 143 of them include it. The character itself is always correct; only the drawing is missing.