Sterling
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Current money of Great Britain, but anciently a small coin worth about one penny, and so called, as some suppose, because it was stamped with the figure of a small star, or, as others suppose, because it was first stamped in England in the reign of King John by merchants from Germany, called "Esterlings." "Pounds sterling" originally signified so many pounds in weight of these coins. Thus, we find in Matthew Paris, A. D. 1242, the expression, Accepit a rege pro stipendio tredecim libras esterlingorum. The secondary or derived sense is a certain value in current money, whether in coins or other currency.
Lowndes, 14; Watts.