No is the answer

Just because a dollar has never been worth more than a pound doesn't mean it's weaker than the pound. The value of a currency is the amount of gold that 1 of its units can buy. A US dollar and a pound sterling are worth different amounts of gold and the value of both of them is different, and fluctuates. There have been quite a few times when the dollar has been stronger than the pound, i.e. its value was increasing (buying more gold) at the same time that the value of the pound was falling (buying less gold). These are the times when US citizens find it cheaper to visit the UK because their dollars buy more pounds.

Brian's answer is wrong, and doesn't scan even if the basis of his arguement were true. First - where is the international house of gold that we use various currencies to purchase at uniform exchange rates? Second - at international house of gold (IHOG?), the lowest price of the GBP to USD was 1.05 pounds to 1.00 us dollars in 1985; so i could have bought 5% more gold from the the IHOG - wouldn't that EXACTLY mean that "just because the Dollar has never been worth more than the GBP on the exchange.." does in fact mean it hasn't been worth more Third - according to wiki, no government uses a gold standard for their currency valuation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard I think the point Brian is trying to make, although you'd need to pull the gold out of the equation, is that one must look at the relative economies, not simply exchange rates, to understand the differences in the currencies. Right now the pound is nearly 2 to 1 on the dollar, but if the average person in the us earns $50,000 per year, and the average person in the UK earns 25,000 pounds per year, they are economically equal in terms of buying power received in exchange for labor output. So a $2 light bulb in Texas, has the same "cost" to a resident of Twikingham at 1 pound. Its when we travel overseas, and our relative incomes come into exchange without adjustment, that things seem more or less valuable.

what the hell is a pound?

Often. The actual value of the currency does not identify its strength: a strong currency is one which keeps its value against others, a weak one is one whose value dribbles away. I remember when the GBP was worth USD2.80; now it is only about USD1.50. The GBP has lost nearly half its value against the USD over those forty years - it is accordingly weaker than the USD. Conversely, I remember when the USD would buy almost 200 YEN; now it will buy only 85. So the USD has, over that time, been weaker then the YEN, even though it is still a much bigger unit. And the GBP, an even bigger unit, is weaker still.