Traders call this pair cable, and the name is not a metaphor. From 1866 the quote travelled between London and New York along the transatlantic telegraph cable, and the word outlived the wire by more than a century. On this site the number is a cross: our source publishes both currencies against the euro and this page divides one by the other.
1.00 GBP = USD
Reference rate of 2026-08-17, European Central Bank. Cross rate computed from the two euro reference rates. 1 GBP = 1.35591 USD.
Because the European Central Bank publishes how many pounds and how many dollars one euro buys, and not the pound against the dollar. Dividing the second by the first gives the pair. Both figures are taken at the same moment on the same day, so the result is coherent, but it carries the rounding of both.
Is a Jersey or Scottish pound the same thing?
Scottish and Northern Irish notes are pounds sterling, the same currency under GBP. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man issue their own pounds, each worth exactly one pound sterling, and a shop in London is under no obligation to accept them.