Pound sterling

The Pound Sterling — or, less formally, the pound, or quid (TV: Rose) — was a form of currency used in the United Kingdom through at least the early 21st century.

The Fourth Doctor once used a pound coin to trigger a sequence of events that saw his pound swapped for another before this new coin landed in a sweet shop till. The startled stall owner knocked a table dropping a bag of jelly babies into a woman's handbag which Doctor deftly took as she passed him by, considering them "bought and paid for". (AUDIO: Chain Reaction)

Unit of currency
As of 1963, the pound was divided with a system of twenty shillings to a pound and twelve pennies to a shilling. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Susan Foreman caught the attention of her teachers because of her inability to remember how many shillings were in a pound when she and the First Doctor settled in London in 1963. She believed Great Britain had switched to the decimalised pound, something that had not yet occurred. (TV: "An Unearthly Child")

The Monk put two hundred pounds in a London bank in 1968, then he nipped forward two hundred years and collected a fortune in compound interest. (TV: The Time Meddler)

Around the late 20th century or early 21st century Britain introduced a five pound coin. (TV: Battlefield)

The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith once discovered that they were in a parallel universe because £5 notes had a picture of Edward IX. (COMIC: Who's Who?)

According to one account, the UK was no longer using this currency by 2050, having switched to credits. (TV: Oroborus) According to another, however, the UK had converted to the Euro some time before 2062. (PROSE: The Last Dodo).

The Tenth Doctor went back in time and borrowed a pound from Geoff Noble in order to buy a lottery ticket for his daughter. He then gave the lottery ticket to her mother and grandfather to pass on as a wedding present in 2010. (TV: The End of Time)

Exchange rates

 * In 2008, £1 was worth slightly more than fifty Sto credits. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)
 * £1 was worth approximately 5.1 Hyspero Dirnas. (PROSE: The Panda Book of Horror)

Behind the scenes
In the real world, the decimalised pound was introduced in 1971, eight years after the airing of TV: An Unearthly Child.