[Rails] Doubt with symbols in Rails

I was trying to write a wrapper for number_to_currency to return
currency in pounds. I used a helper class to do this.

def number_to_pounds(amt)
number_to_currency(amt, :unit => "£")
end

This works fine, but I am trying to understand why I can't use a
symbol to pass the values. I thought symbols were like pointers. (you
now know I am a newbie).

def number_to_pounds(:amt)
number_to_currency(:amt, :unit => "£")
end

Note - amt is not the name of the variable my view works on, it is
price, so I tried the symbol :price, it wouldn't work either. I am
googling to learn about the symbols. Any link for that would be really
helpful.

Thanks

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