You can learn all about the pound sign (Or Hash as it is correctly referred to) here: hyperdictionary
The US usage derives from an old-fashioned commercial practice of using a "#" suffix to tag pound weights on bills of lading. The character is usually pronounced "hash" outside the US
Posts: 9192 | Location: Atlanta, GA, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
Calling it the hash sign avoids confusion. The pound sign is £ to most English speakers outside the US, for obvious reasons. And that sign? Its origin is a pound being 'librum' in Latin; clerks wrote it as a fancy 'L'.And a pound weight? They wrote lb, from the same word.We've never had a useful sign for use in numbering; using # is a novelty here and a great improvement over 'No.' which is apt to be misread in transmission.
