# Why no pounds for Austria? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794 "2003-02-18T03:22:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gjorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@Gjorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gjorp)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/1 "2003-02-18T03:22:13Z")
I don’t know whether Austria’s on the Euro now or not, so if they are, this only counts for the olden days, but… A little historical background on European money: The general unit of currency was a pound of silver. This survived into the English pound, the Italian Lira, and some others. The pound of silver was then divided into 240. The English called these pence. The currency for Austria is the schilling. A schilling (like the English shilling) is worth 1/20 of a pound. This matches up when I look at some prices from Austria (120 schillings for a book), it matches up with the 1/20 of a pound. So, why didn’t they take to the pound like England, France, Italy, etc.? Another question, did the other European countries use the shilling at all? Which ones actually used the pound? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/2 "2003-02-18T06:13:56Z")
> [@](#): > > A little historical background on European money: The general unit of currency was a pound of silver. I’m not sure where you got this idea. I’m not sure it’s correct. Any cites or help here? I’m not aware that an Italian Lire has any basis in a pound of silver. But you could always persuade me. While you’re at it, if you can show where France also based their currency on a “pound of silver” I’d love to read about it. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/3 "2003-02-18T06:19:50Z")
Interesting question. See if you can find some background to this, as I also would like to know more. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/4 "2003-02-18T06:22:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Another question, did the other European countries use the shilling at all? Which ones actually used the pound I forgot about this question. Some of the Swiss cantons used a “shilling,” probably the German-Austrian influenced ones. Poland also, but that would also be an Austrian influence. I think. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/5 "2003-02-18T10:35:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\*I’m not sure where you got this idea. I’m not sure it’s correct. Any cites or help here? > > I’m not aware that an Italian Lire has any basis in a pound of silver. But you could always persuade me. While you’re at it, if you can show where France also based their currency on a “pound of silver” I’d love to read about it. \*\* Both the italian “lira” and the french “livre” meant “pound” and indeed originally refered to an actual pound of silver. I don’t know for Italy, but in France, the “livre” was the count unit until the end of the monarchy. IOW, there was no coin worth one “livre”, but debts, incomes, etc…would be calculated in “livres” and paid with actual coins called louis, ecus, etc…The value of these coins expressed in “livres” (which itself had lost any reference to the actual value of a pound of silver) could vary greatly over time. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/6 "2003-02-18T11:52:17Z")
BTW, Austria is on the Euro now, along with Germany and Italy and Switzerland. But not the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/7 "2003-02-18T12:11:45Z")
Switzeland does not use the Euro. It is not part of the EU and it still uses Swiss Francs. ---
**Author:** ![universe.zip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@universe.zip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/universe.zip)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/8 "2003-02-18T15:25:26Z")
I´m not sure on the history of the Schilling, but I could probably look it up… I don´t know whether the “why” can be definitely answered, I don´t think monetary units and their subdivisions follow an overall logic, but I should have a history of the Austrian monetary system somewhere, it used to be Kronen or some such stuff, until the turn of the century. But as for “why no pound” - the metric system is rather deep-rooted in Austria, so a 1:20 ratio would be slightly awkward. Also, a Schilling equals (well, equalled… it´s € now) 100 Groschen, so the Schilling already was the larger unit. And the name might be a coincidence, not sure. Well, I´ll see if I can find anything. ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/9 "2003-02-18T16:34:03Z")
Oddly enough isn’t the origin of dollar Austrian? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-pounds-for-austria/155794/10 "2003-02-18T16:48:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TitoBenito \* > Oddly enough isn’t the origin of dollar Austrian? \*From [The Origin of Dollar\*](http://www.cycnet.com/englishcorner/background/dollar.htm): > [@](#): > > The origin of the almighty dollar is in what is now the Czech Republic. In 1519, a silver mine near the town of Joachimstal (literally “Joachim’s valley,” from the German Tal, meaning valley) began minting a silver coin called, unimaginatively, the Joachimstaler. The coin, which was circulated widely, became better known by its clipped form, the taler. In Dutch and Low German, the initial consonant softened to become daler. English adopted this form, eventually changing its spelling to the modern dollar.