I have to post something to the US. The address contains a £ sign, which seems a bit odd to me. Would this be correct, or is it just a typo? The address is of the form:
Mr John Smith
9999 Smith Street £H-999
Smithville
California 99999
If it is correct, what does the £ sign mean?
If someone is using the UK keyboard layout on a Mac, the number sign (aka ‘pound sign’) is £ instead of #. It should probably be #H-999.
Also, the city, state and ZIP code is properly written on one line:
Smithville, CA 99999
(Note that there should be no comma between the state abbreviation and the ZIP code.)
This address was read to me over the phone by the American concerned, so it can’t be a keyboard issue. Is the # sign ever referred to as the “pound” sign by Americans?
Yes, the # symbol is sometimes called “pound” (normally only in reference to telephones though).
Yes, that’s a very common usage. I’m amused to hear it referred to as such in an address though, as usually it’s for telephone keypad entry directions (“Enter your credit card number and then press the ‘pound sign’.”) and the like.
You bet it is! It means “weight”, though, not “currency”. As in, 20# of sugar. I can’t recall ever hearing an American call that symbol “the number sign”. But do people REALLY use it in every day life?
One of those bizzaro things that makes you shake your head.
Yes. Many people call the # the pound sign, as in 3# of stuff. (I grew up using ‘lb.’ or ‘lbs.’, and the # was always the ‘number sign’.)
Heh. Qudadruple post.
I don’t remember hearing it called a ‘pound sign’ until touch-tone phones overtook rotary-dial. Late-'70s or early-'80s.
Thanks all. I’ll use # in place of £.
I’ll do that too.
You know, sometimes I call it “hash” but I have no clue why or if anybody else does it. The symbol, that is, not pounds.
I’ve heard it referred to as a hashmark.
Now that you mention it, I’ve heard them called ‘hash marks’ too. Not for a while though. Probably from ‘hatch’/‘cross hatch’.
Technical term for the typographical character /#/ is the octothorpe.
And yes, I’ve heard it referred to as the “pound sign” (meaning avoirdupois, not Sterling) – before twelve-key phone keypads, in fact.
Database entries tend to reference Room 935, Apt, H-3, or Suite 200 indifferently as #935, #H-3, or #200 – the point being that whatever term is used for the intra-building address is some number within the structure at 200 Main Street.
Our last residence before moving south was a large old house that had been converted into two roomy apartments (upstairs plus finished attic area, and downstairs plus a cellar we never saw); we were in #2, with our mailbox on the porch outside the common entry and directly adjacent to the mailbox for #1.
The proper name for it, of course, is the octothorpe. 
ETA: curse you, Multifish!
Nitpick: USPS actually prefers no [del]punctuation[/del] commas (or periods) at all.
http://www.usps.com/send/preparemailandpackages/labelsandaddressing/usingthecorrectaddress.htm#table
It has many names. My favorite is ‘octothorpe’, but ‘hash’ certainly is common. From the Jargon File:
It’s an octothorp. [On preview, I see that’s not news.] Can’t imagine why more people don’t simply call it that. 
While it is also called the pound sign and the number sign, depending on context, I find it odd that someone reading an address where it obviously refers to a suite/apartment/box/whatever number would call it a pound sign. Surely he reads “#3” as “number three,” not “pound three.”
Willard Espy has written a poem giving the various names that the # character is given when it is used in a wide variety of applications:
Many offices encumber
My diurnal rounds;
1. Before a digit, I'm a #; **number**
2. After digits, #; **pound**
3. In a printer's proof, a #; **space**
While, if at the harp
You should pluck me from my place,
4. I would be a #. **sharp**
5. In one game, I'm #; **tic-tac-toe**
6. An # on phones; **octothorpe**
7. In business, I'm #, although **non-add**
8. A # when in bones. **fracture**
“Octothorpe” is not the “proper” name, it is simply a name that either Texas Instruments or Bell Labs attempted to assign to the character years and years after it had been long employed to indicate number (count) or weight (averdupois) in groceries across the country.
Damn you, tomndebb! I always think of this poem whenever a discussion of # comes up, but this time around I was too lazy to go dig out the book.
Scarlett, Espy fan