The £ character in modern times uses only a single bar. There is a separate Unicode code point for the Lira character, which is for use when the archaic 2 bar version is required. With the aggressive slope to the symbol, it is far to easy to confuse it with the € symbol (€£). I am curious as to the motivating decision to use two bars, does anyone know? At first I thought it might be because e.g. €, ¥, ₩, all have double bars, and the font designer wanted consistency, but that makes no sense since the single bar $ is retained. In fact that doesn't even have a full line. I am no expert in typeface design, but I am curious to understand this decision.
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