m. of,
relating to or characterized by sterling, the British
currency, especially the
pound. This
term refer to those countries and areas that
base their
currency on sterling. In the early-1900s certain countries of the
Commonwealth formed together to
create the sterling
area, and from 1931, until 1972, they
pegged their
exchange rates to sterling, or kept their
reserves in sterling as opposed to
gold or dollars, and transferred
money freely among themselves. However, after Britain joined the European
Economic Community in 1973, the sterling
area drastically contracted and by 1980 the sterling
area had ceased to exist. The
word sterling is believed to have come from a medieval
coin that was
marked with a
star.