I get doillies, not pounds:

☼☼☼

Alt-163 is jolly, but still not a pound:

♪♪♪♪

alt + 0163

ú = 163
£ = 0163

It'll be to do with how your non keys are set up. It's been an age since I mucked about with this sort of stuff but you would need to get into the set up and see what key/no. sequence is set up with what symbol. You'll be amazed by how many symbols your keyboard can make! Well... maybe not.

♪ = 163

= 0163

Writing "pound" or GBP works.

£ is from charmap.

But I hoped there was a quicker way. I guess it is pound or GBP for the time being.

Out of idle curiosity, is Charmap showing any alt+ keystroke options to you in the bottom right hand side when you select £ ?

The £ is an ASCII symbol, you can assign a key to display any symbol.
http://www.danshort.com/ASCIImap/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/goglobal/cc305145.aspx

Go to the Character Map in System tools (windows) and this will display the shortcut for each symbol, you can also change the shortcut in here too.

I get the pound sign whenever I type £.

See.

If you are blonde I'm told its easy to get £ by typing

L
(backspace)
f


You have to make sure you are in overwrite mode rather than insert mode though

Glad i'm bringing my UK wireless jobby! much more sensible having keys for $ and £'s.Though i guess i'll be using the £ key much less in few months time!

The £ on my keyboard has not been devalued.

¡™£¢∞§¶•ªºŠ“∑´®â€� ¥¨Ë� øπÃ� �ß∂ƒ©˙âˆ� ˚¬Ω≠ˆÃ§âˆ«ËœÂµâ‰¤â‰¥

Ooo! I lurve my mac.

We are a family of two and will be moving with (likely) no jobs and about £12,000 in savings.... anything is possible, and I guess you will make it work with whatever money you have.

If you immediately want to recreate your same standard of living in Canada, then I guess you will need more due to the low value of the pound, or if you are willing and happy for your family to live cheap and cheerful for a little while, then you will have more than plenty!

Best of luck.

FS