A pound of cure

>Jonathan Leffler writes >.......... I think that the value for the pound symbol (meaning the >squiggly L which is used for Pounds Sterling and not the hash or octothorpe >or whatever you want to call the # which the Americans think is a pound >sign) is ASCII(163),........... Somewhere in early America (probably Colonial America) the '#' was used as an abreviation to 16 ounces (one pound). Thus the '#' has been known as 'the pound sign'. If you go to one of those historic villages that dot the country you'll see a bag a flour marked "20#" meaning that it it is a big 20 pound bag of flour, not that it costs 20 pounds. I always call it the "tic-tac-toe sign". May not be mature, but everyone knows what I'm talking about. John Regep uunet!kmart!jregep