The symbol # is known variously in English-speaking regions as the number sign, hash, or pound sign. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes including the designation of an ordinal number and as a ligatured abbreviation for pounds avoirdupois – having been derived from the now-rare ℔.
The abbreviation written by Isaac Newton, showing the evolution from "℔" toward "#"
Detail of a telephone keypad displaying the Viewdata square
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes or letters are joined to form a single glyph. Examples are the characters ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨œ⟩ used in English and French, in which the letters ⟨a⟩ and ⟨e⟩ are joined for the first ligature and the letters ⟨o⟩ and ⟨e⟩ are joined for the second ligature. For stylistic and legibility reasons, ⟨f⟩ and ⟨i⟩ are often merged to create ⟨fi⟩ ; the same is true of ⟨s⟩ and ⟨t⟩ to create ⟨st⟩. The common ampersand, ⟨&⟩, developed from a ligature in which the handwritten Latin letters ⟨e⟩ and ⟨t⟩ were combined.
Wood type sorts with ligatures of (from left to right) ⟨fl⟩, ⟨ft⟩, ⟨ff⟩, ⟨fi⟩; in 20 Cicero = 240 Didot points ≈ 90.2328 mm (typeface Futura bold condensed)
A widely used Th ligature in a handwriting-style typeface
Ligatures "Th" and "Wh" illustration
"ß" in the form of a "ſʒ" ligature on a street sign in Berlin (Petersburger Straße). The sign on the right (Bersarinplatz) ends with a "tʒ" ligature ("ꜩ").