Dollar seems to be the measure of all the exchangable goods, during the years it has gained ground, even if this expansion has been reduced since the appearance of the euro in 1999.
In Great Britain there is a currency, the pound, that still has value in front of crisis and important changes that have suffered the world economy in the last fifty years.
The name of the foreign currency pound, appeared in the 8th century. The term pound and sterling pound appeared in the Anglo-Saxon Great Britain, when a reform transformed the principal currency, called sterling in a new foreign currency, sterling pound, that was equal to 240 sterlings.
The foreign currency pound was born related to the Silver Standard and was replaced by the gold in 1717. The symbol that represents the foreign currency pound is £ and actually even if there are some currencies that have a better position, the foreign currency pound is still one of the principal foreign currencies used in the world.
As the euro, the foreign currency pound keeps an influence zone called sterling area and it is about those countries that were part of the British empire or are members of the Commonwealth.

The pound was the most popular forreign currency until 1945. Until that date the international trade was regulated by this currency value, where all the transactions have to be through England and it was done with that currency.
The end of the Second World War was the end of british control and so did the pound as reference currency. Bretton Woods arrangement established that American Dollar would be the currency able to regulate all the commercial transactions in the world.
Actually, the pound is falling its value. Euro introduction in 1999 made the pound lose ground in the principal economic decisions of the world. This situation has made British financial institutions look for a solution for this problem, and one of the measures that banks have taken is to reduce the cost of interest rates to the level of the European Union, and so, be able to compete with the raising Euro. In some years it would be very different for the pound to be as it used to be some years ago.