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: "Checkmate")



In the 1970s, The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith discovered that they had been sent to a parallel universe because £5 notes had a picture of Edward IX. (COMIC: Who's Who?)

In or prior to 1997, Britain introduced a five pound coin. (TV: Battlefield)

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

The Eleventh Doctor gave Craig Owens three thousand pounds as rent money for 79A Aickman Road. He was unsure of whether or not that was a lot of money, though he thought it looked like a lot. Speaking with Craig over the phone, Sophie expressed concern that he showed up with a paper bag with three grand in it, suspecting he may be a drug dealer. (TV: The Lodger)

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)

In the 25th century, Kaftan offered fifty pounds to whoever could open the doors to the tombs of the Cybermen. One crewman took up the offer but was electrocuted. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)

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 the television story An Unearthly Child.