A great many words used in connection with money and financial transactions may be traced back to the days of the Medici family, who were the first financiers in Italy, and the first people to practise money-lending in its present form. The three balls that serve as a sign for the pawnbroker are part of the heraldic design of that family.
The words Libra, Solidus and Denarius or L.S.D., are legacies from the Latin; and the bank is said to have come from the banco, or bench, on which the money-changers used to count out their money. When a man could not pay his way his bench was broken up, and he became "banco rotto," or bankrupt.
The term "sterling," however, dates from the days of the Hanseatic League. Other people called the members of that league, the Easterlings, because they came from the east of England; they paid in gold, which was called Easterling money, and soon became sterling.
The Irish Times, July 18th, 1930.