sterling and dollar balances

[pars]

Dear all!
What is the exact meaning of the words in bold in the following passage? It is from the book “Persian Gulf Command” by Ashley Jackson, p 343. Balance is the money in bank account, but the surprising point here is that the words "sterling" and "dollar" are not written with capital letter. Due to that, I am not sure about what I think about the meaning of it.

We shall need our sterling and dollar balances of some £20,000,000 but that will probably be insufficient for all the reforms we are planning.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[GoesStation]

Like all names of monetary units, "dollar" should not be capitalized. "Sterling" is usually capitalized in the phrase "pounds Sterling" but may or may not be elsewhere.

 

[Tdol]

I went to see what The Bank of England used and they favour just Sterling:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Rates.asp

 

[PeterCW]

I went to see what The Bank of England used and they favour just Sterling:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Rates.asp

The BofE are unusual as they capitalise all currency names. Some other sites do so as well but not consistently.

 

[Tarheel]

The Bank of England is peculiar.
;-)