Irish pound introduced UK versions. When the UK 5p and 10p coins were reduced in size, the Irish followed suit, but the new Irish 10p was smaller than the new UK version introduced in 1992 and the new Irish 5p was slightly larger than the UK version introduced in 1990. The Irish 50p was never reduced in size (as it had been in the UK in 1997). 31 December 1998, the exchange rates between the European Currency Unit and the Irish pound and 10 other EMS currencies (all but the pound sterling, the Swedish krona and the Danish krone) were fixed. The
Pound (currency) Pound (currency) The pound is a unit of currency in some nations. The term originated in the Frankish Empire as a result of Charlemagne's currency reform ("pound" from Latin "pondus", a unity of weight) and was subsequently taken to Great Britain as the value of a pound (weight) of silver. The English word "pound" is cognate with, among others, German "Pfund", Dutch "pond", and Swedish "pund". All ultimately derive from a borrowing into Proto-Germanic of the Latin expression "lībra pondō" ("a pound by weight"), in which the word "pondō" is the ablative case of the Latin noun "pondus" ("weight"). The