Daily AncestorPound
In colonial and early American records a pound (£) was the largest money unit: 20 shillings or 240 pence, usually of local currency rather than English sterling.
Colonists kept their accounts in pounds, shillings and pence, with 20 shillings to the pound and 12 pence to the shilling. There was no everyday coin worth exactly one pound, so the pound worked as a unit for reckoning, and debts were settled in whatever coins or paper money were at hand.
Clerks wrote the £ sign before the number or a small l. after it, as in 3 l. A colonial pound was worth less than a pound sterling, and the gap differed from colony to colony. Reckoning in pounds and shillings lingered in some places long after the dollar was adopted.
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Daily Ancestor. "Pound." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/money-measures/pound-money. Last checked 2026-10-03.