Currencies with more than one name

[translateltd]

So is kwai a denomination AND a currency name - or, like "sterling", just a currency name?

There are still only two currencies, then, so far as we know, with English names that do NOT also apply to a denomination, namely sterling and renminbi.

You count in "kwai", so it's interchangeable with "yuan".

Is "sterling" actually an official name for the pound or is it just common usage that has become entrenched?  I wonder where the line sits between this and, say, the use of "greenback" to describe the US dollar in financial markets.  You don't have 1, 2, 5 "greenbacks", so it's a generic, like sterling and renminbi.  (BTW, "renminbi" literally means "people's currency", and I understand it's short for "renminbi yuan" (people's currency dollar) so there may be an element of popular/financial market usage in this case too.

[<k>]

You count in "kwai", so it's interchangeable with "yuan".

Is "sterling" actually an official name for the pound or is it just common usage that has become entrenched?

I've heard it all my life, though obviously far less often than "the pound", as it is generally used in more rarified circles. To me it sounds official rather  than colloquial - something you'd more likely hear from a BBC economics correspondent than from a trade unionist. Dictionaries do not list it as colloquial or whatever.

[translateltd]

So where does that leave us in terms of financial market news reports that refer to sterling, the greenback, the kiwi, etc., meaning the currencies in each case?

[<k>]

"The greenback" and "the kiwi" sound colloquial, but maybe over time they will come to sound standard or technical - as "sterling" does to me, unlike "quid".