The pound symbol on my keyboard now gives me a hash symbol instead

Steve,

eww is, of course, correct.

To solve this go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > International > Input Tab. Then uncheck all languages except 'British' I've just tried switching mine to 'U.S.' and I then get a hash # too.

Now, you've said you've checked that... so next I would suspect a corrupt preference:

• First zap the PRAM.
• Next, try, deleting the preference file:
  com.apple.systempreferences.plist. This is located in Macintosh HD > Users > <your username> > Library > Preferences > ...

Hope that helps.

mrtotes

Hi, Steve, and welcome to Apple Discussions. On a US keyboard, the pound (sterling) symbol is accessed using Option-3 instead of Shift-3. If Option-3 yields that symbol on your keyboard now, I suspect something has gone amiss with your keyboard selection or a related preference file — but I don't know OS X well enough to tell you where to look for the trouble. If no one else comes up with a better idea here, you may want to repost in the Tiger Installation & Setup forum.