After WWI, the French central bank held many of its reserves in English pound sterling.
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Likewise, the yen has risen 6% against the Australia dollar and 4.4% against the British pound sterling.
That helps explain why the SNP is keen to keep the pound sterling instead of a move to the euro.
Dennis Canavan's view is at odds with that of the SNP Scottish government which would rather continue to share the pound sterling.
Since 1998 Schwab has opened more than 130, 000 online accounts in the U.K. British investors can trade in pound sterling or dollar accounts.
That helps explain why the SNP has already promised to keep the Queen as head of state and the pound sterling as Scotland's currency.
Just across the English Channel, a less-dovish European Central Bank (ECB) policy stance and the ongoing euro-lending indicator improvements has the Pound Sterling playing second fiddle.
Some traders have hundreds of kilos of notes ready to swap for pound sterling, US dollars or euros, with barrow-boy helpers moving the money around on two wheels or in the back of a car.
You'll recall that George Osborne departed from that script last week, when he set out the negotiating stance of the rest of the UK on sharing the pound sterling as a post-independence currency, along with oversight and central banking by the Bank of England.
That financial crisis, in the course of which the Italian lira was ejected from Europe's pre-euro exchange-rate system (along with Britain's pound sterling) coincided with a huge political crisis, as corruption investigations brought crashing down the parties that had dominated Italian politics for the past 40 years.
At one point in a show down among the English and French central bankers over French recovery from the war, the French central banker threatened to redeem its reserves in pound sterling back into gold, as the English went back on the gold standard a few years earlier.
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"When you are creating a currency whose purpose is to be unregulated and then that currency gains value and its exchange rate with the dollar or the pound sterling increases, then clearly this is going attract all sorts of people who want to launder their illicitly earned money, " he says.
In turn, customers know that the shop must then buy its stock from a local supplier, or pay a 3% fee to convert the Bristol Pound back into sterling.
Investors and dealers alike will be looking for clues, by way of comments on UK gross domestic product (GDP) targeting, and whether his testimony may shape the future trajectory of the Sterling Pound.
In 1921 the Irish Free State won its independence from Great Britain and introduced its own coins and notes in 1928, although the Irish pound remained tied to sterling until 1979.
Even today private banks in Northern Ireland and Scotland issue pound notes redeemable into pounds sterling, and in Hong Kong paper currency is supplied exclusively by private banks.
Last month, ratings agency Moody's cut the UK's AAA credit rating, which hit the pound, and the value of sterling has continued to edge down since then.
The outlook for the Northern Ireland pig sector very much depends on the strength of sterling and with the pound hovering around the 3 deutschmark level, there seems to be no immediate prospect of a return to profitability.
Britain's catching up is explained entirely by the surge in sterling, which makes every pound of output worth more in euros.
But for the moment, central banks' vote of confidence in sterling seems to be underpinning the pound.
This is one reason why the pound has slipped against the dollar: international investors now expect lower yields from holding sterling.
Import prices will be pushed up by a weaker pound, whose 6% fall in the last three months was the biggest since sterling's ignominious exit from the European exchange-rate mechanism in 1992.
The fall in the pound may have been disconcertingly large but it marks an overdue adjustment after a long period in which sterling was overpriced.
ECONOMIST: The pound��s plunge is hurting, but pain is part of the remedy
Even though Britain relies more than other European countries on Asian trade and investment, sterling should have the bigger effect, given that the trade-weighted value of the pound is about 25% higher than in mid-1996.
And as the international markets increasingly see sterling as a 'safe haven' in uncertain times, the prospect of a strengthening pound would make it even more difficult for local exporters to sell their goods across the water.
Speculators have increased their bets against the pound, with latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showing they built up their largest "short" sterling bets since last June.
David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, said this could further weaken the pound: "Caution is needed before we embark on any policies likely to result in further declines in sterling and higher inflation, " he said.
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Sterling's slide has been greeted with dismay by British tourists, accustomed to the heft a strong pound gave their wallets when holidaying abroad.
ECONOMIST: The pound��s plunge is hurting, but pain is part of the remedy
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