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A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the
Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is the formal name of the British penny ( p) and the ''de facto'' name of the American one-cent coin (abbr. ¢) as well as the informal Irish designation of the
1 cent euro coin The 1 euro cent coin (€0.01) has a value of one hundredth of a euro and is composed of copper-covered steel. It is the lowest-value coin in the Eurozone, the next highest are the 2 and 5 euro cent coins. The coins of every Euro country have ...
(abbr. c). It is the informal name of the cent unit of account in Canada, although one-cent coins are no longer minted there. The name is used in reference to various historical currencies, also derived from the Carolingian system, such as the
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
denier and the German pfennig. It may also be informally used to refer to any similar smallest-denomination coin, such as the euro cent or Chinese fen. The Carolingian penny was originally a 0.940-fine silver coin, weighing
pound Pound or Pounds may refer to: Units * Pound (currency), a unit of currency * Pound sterling, the official currency of the United Kingdom * Pound (mass), a unit of mass * Pound (force), a unit of force * Rail pound, in rail profile Symbols * Po ...
. It was adopted by
Offa of Mercia Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was List of monarchs of Mercia, King of Mercia, a kingdom of History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa of Mercia, Eowa, Offa came to ...
and other English kings and remained the principal currency in Europe over the next few centuries, until repeated debasements necessitated the development of more valuable coins. The British penny remained a silver coin until the expense of the Napoleonic Wars prompted the use of base metals in 1797. Despite the decimalization of currencies in the United States and, later, throughout the British Commonwealth, the name remains in informal use. No penny is currently formally subdivided, although farthings (d), halfpennies, and half cents have previously been minted and the mill (¢) remains in use as a unit of account in some contexts.


Etymology

''Penny'' is first attested in a 1394
Scots Scots usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: * Scots language, a language of the West Germanic language family native to Scotland * Scots people, a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland * Scoti, a Latin na ...
text, a variant of
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, a development of numerous variations including , , and . The etymology of the term "penny" is uncertain, although cognates are common across almost all Germanic languages in reference to the coin and is, peningur,
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
, and da, penge in reference to "money".
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
, however, has () for the occurrence of "denarius" ( grc-gre, δηνάριος, ) in the New Testament. and suggest a base *''pan-'', *''pann-'', or *''pand-'' with the individualizing suffix ''-ing''. Common suggestions include that it was originally *''panding'' as a Low Franconian form of Old High German "pawn" (in the sense of a pledge or debt, as in a
pawnbroker A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...
putting up collateral as a pledge for repayment of loans); *''panning'' as a form of the West Germanic word for " frying pan", presumably owing to its shape; and *''ponding'' as a very early borrowing of Latin ("
pound Pound or Pounds may refer to: Units * Pound (currency), a unit of currency * Pound sterling, the official currency of the United Kingdom * Pound (mass), a unit of mass * Pound (force), a unit of force * Rail pound, in rail profile Symbols * Po ...
"). Recently, it has been proposed that it may represent an early borrowing of Punic (''Pane'' or ''Pene'', "Face"), as the face of Carthaginian goddess Tanit was represented on nearly all Carthaginian currency. Following decimalization, the British and Irish coins were marked "new penny" until 1982 and 1985, respectively. From the 16th century, the regular plural ''pennies'' fell out of use in England, when referring to a sum of money (e.g. "That costs tenpence."), but continued to be used to refer to more than one penny coin ("Here you are, a sixpence and four pennies."). It remains common in Scottish English, and is standard for all senses in American English, where, however, the informal "penny" is typically only used of the coins in any case, values being expressed in "cents". The informal name for the American cent seems to have spread from New York State.. In Britain, prior to decimalization, values from two to eleven pence were often written, and spoken as a single word, as ''twopence'' or ''tuppence'', ''threepence'' or ''thruppence'', etc. (Other values were usually expressed in terms of shillings and pence or written as two words, which might or might not be hyphenated.) Where a single coin represented a number of pence, it was treated as a single noun, as ''a sixpence''. Thus, "a threepence" (but more usually "a threepenny bit") would be a single coin of that value whereas "three pence" would be its value, and "three pennies" would be three penny coins. In British English, divisions of a penny were added to such combinations without a conjunction, as ''sixpence-farthing'', and such constructions were also treated as single nouns. Adjectival use of such coins used the ending -penny, as ''sixpenny''. The British abbreviation d. derived from the Latin . It followed the amount, e.g. "11d". It has been replaced since decimalization by p, usually written without a space or period. From this abbreviation, it is common to speak of pennies and values in pence as "p".. In
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, it is common to abbreviate cents with the currency symbol ¢. Elsewhere, it is usually written with a simple c.


History


Antiquity

The medieval silver penny was modeled on similar coins in antiquity, such as the Greek drachma, the
Carthaginian The term Carthaginian ( la, Carthaginiensis ) usually refers to a citizen of Ancient Carthage. It can also refer to: * Carthaginian (ship), a three-masted schooner built in 1921 * Insurgent privateers; nineteenth-century South American privateers, ...
shekel, and the Roman denarius. Forms of these seem to have reached as far as Norway and
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. The use of
Roman currency Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomi ...
in Britain, seems to have fallen off after the Roman withdrawal and subsequent Saxon invasions.


Frankish Empire

Charlemagne's father
Pepin the Short the Short (french: Pépin le Bref; – 24 September 768), also called the Younger (german: Pippin der Jüngere), was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become king. The younger was the son of ...
instituted a major currency reform around . aiming to reorganize Francia's previous silver standard with a standardized .940-fine ( la, denarius) weighing 1240
pound Pound or Pounds may refer to: Units * Pound (currency), a unit of currency * Pound sterling, the official currency of the United Kingdom * Pound (mass), a unit of mass * Pound (force), a unit of force * Rail pound, in rail profile Symbols * Po ...
.. (As the Carolingian pound seems to have been about 489.5  grams, each penny weighed about 2  grams.) Around 790, Charlemagne introduced a new .950 or .960-fine penny with a smaller diameter. Surviving specimens have an average weight of although some estimate the original ideal mass at But despite the purity and quality of these pennies, they were often rejected by traders throughout the Carolingian period, in favor of the gold coins used elsewhere; this led to repeated legislation against such refusal, to accept the king's currency..


England

Some of the
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
kingdoms initially copied the solidus, the late Roman gold coin; at the time, however, gold was so rare and valuable that even the smallest coins had such a great value that they could only be used in very large transactions and were sometimes not available at all. Around 641–670, there seems to have been a movement to use coins with lower gold content. This decreased their value and may have increased the number that could be minted, but these paler coins do not seem to have solved the problem of the value and scarcity of the currency. The miscellaneous silver sceattas minted in
Frisia Frisia is a cross-border cultural region in Northwestern Europe. Stretching along the Wadden Sea, it encompasses the north of the Netherlands and parts of northwestern Germany. The region is traditionally inhabited by the Frisians, a West Ger ...
and
Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom o ...
after around 680 were probably known as "pennies" at the time. (The misnomer is based on a probable misreading of the Anglo-Saxon legal codes.) Their purity varied and their weight fluctuated from about 0.8 to about 1.3 grams. They continued to be minted in
East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
under Beonna and in Northumbria as late as the mid-9th century. The first Carolingian-style pennies were introduced by King
Offa of Mercia Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was List of monarchs of Mercia, King of Mercia, a kingdom of History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa of Mercia, Eowa, Offa came to ...
( 757–796), modeled on Pepin's system. His first series was of the
Saxon pound Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...
of , giving a pennyweight of about His queen Cynethryth also minted these coins under her own name. Near the end of his reign, Offa minted his coins in imitation of Charlemagne's reformed pennies. Offa's coins were imitated by
East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
, Kent, Wessex and Northumbria, as well as by two
Archbishops of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
. As in the Frankish Empire, all these pennies were notionally fractions of
shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
s (; ) and pounds (; ) but during this period neither larger unit was minted. Instead, they functioned only as notional
units of account In economics, unit of account is one of the money functions. A unit of account is a standard numerical monetary unit of measurement of the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. Also known as a "measure" or "standard" of rel ...
. (For instance, a "shilling" or "solidus" of grain was a measure equivalent to the amount of grain that 12 pennies could purchase.) English currency was notionally .925-fine sterling silver at the time of Henry II, but the weight and value of the silver penny steadily declined from 1300 onwards. In 1257, Henry III minted a gold penny which had the nominal value of 1 shilling 8 pence (i.e. 20 ''d.''). At first, the coin proved unpopular because it was overvalued for its weight; by 1265 it was so undervalued—the
bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from t ...
value of its gold being worth 2 shillings (i.e. 24 ''d.'') by then—that the coins still in circulation were almost entirely melted down for the value of their gold. Only eight gold pennies are known to survive. It was not until the reign of that the
florin The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purcha ...
and noble established a common gold currency in England. The earliest halfpenny and farthing (¼''d.'') found date from the reign of Henry III. The need for small change was also sometimes met by simply cutting a full penny into halves or quarters. In 1527,
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
abolished the Tower pound of 5400 grains, replacing it with the Troy pound of 5760 grains (making a penny 5760/240 = 24 grains) and establishing a new pennyweight of 1.56 grams, although, confusingly, the penny coin by then weighed about 8 grains, and had never weighed as much as this 24 grains. The last silver pence for general circulation were minted during the reign of Charles II around 1660. Since then, they have only been coined for issue as
Maundy money Royal Maundy is a religious service in the Church of England held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. At the service, the British monarch or a royal official ceremonially distributes small silver coins known as "Maundy money" (legal ...
, royal
alms Alms (, ) are money, food, or other material goods donated to people living in poverty. Providing alms is often considered an act of virtue or Charity (practice), charity. The act of providing alms is called almsgiving, and it is a widespread p ...
given to the elderly on Maundy Thursday.


United Kingdom

Throughout the 18th century, the British government did not mint pennies for general circulation and the
bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from t ...
value of the existing silver pennies caused them to be withdrawn from circulation. Merchants and mining companies, such as Anglesey's Parys Mining Co., began to issue their own copper tokens to fill the need for small change. Finally, amid the Napoleonic Wars, the government authorized Matthew Boulton to mint copper pennies and twopences at Soho Mint in Birmingham in 1797. Typically, 1 lb. of copper produced 24 pennies. In 1860, the copper penny was replaced with a
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
one (95% copper, 4% tin, 1% zinc). Each pound of bronze was coined into 48 pennies.


United States

The United States' cent, popularly known as the "penny" since the early 19th century, began with the unpopular copper
chain cent The chain cent was America's first large cent and the first circulating coin officially produced by the United States Mint. It was struck only during 1793. It was not the first circulating coin produced by the United States, which was the Fugio c ...
in 1793. Abraham Lincoln was the first historical figure to appear on a U.S. coin when he was portrayed on the one-cent coin to commemorate his 100th birthday.


South Africa

The penny that was brought to the Cape Colony (in what is now South Africa) was a large coin—36 mm in diameter, 3.3 mm thick, and —and the twopence was correspondingly larger at 41 mm in diameter, 5 mm thick and . On them was Britannia with a trident in her hand. The English called this coin the
Cartwheel penny Cartwheel or Cartwheels may refer to: Transport *A cart wheel, usually spelled "cartwheel" Gymnastics *Cartwheel (gymnastics), an acrobatic maneuver * Aerial cartwheel, an acrobatic move in which a cartwheel is executed without touching hands to ...
due to its large size and raised rim, but the Capetonians referred to it as the Devil's Penny as they assumed that only the Devil used a trident. The coins were very unpopular due to their large weight and size. On 6 June 1825, Lord Charles Somerset, the governor, issued a proclamation that only
British Sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...
would be legal tender in the Cape Colony (colonial South Africa). The new British coins (which were introduced in England in 1816), among them being the shilling, six-pence of silver, the penny, half-penny, and quarter-penny in copper, were introduced to the Cape. Later two-shilling, four-penny, and three-penny coins were added to the coinage. The size and denomination of the 1816 British coins, with the exception of the four-penny coins, were used in South Africa until 1960.


Criticism

Handling and counting penny coins entail transaction costs that may be higher than a penny. It has been claimed that, for micropayments, the mental arithmetic costs more than the penny. Changes in the market prices of metals, combined with currency inflation, have caused the metal value of penny coins to exceed their face value. Australia and New Zealand adopted 5¢ and 10¢, respectively, as their lowest coin denomination, followed by Canada, which adopted 5¢ as its lowest denomination in 2012. Several nations have stopped minting equivalent value coins, and efforts have been made to end the routine use of pennies in several countries. In the UK, since 1992, one- and two-penny coins have been made from copper-plated steel (making them magnetic) instead of bronze.


In popular culture

* In British and American culture, finding a penny is traditionally considered lucky. A proverbial expression of this is "Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck." * "A penny for your thoughts" is an idiomatic way of asking someone what they are thinking about. It is first attested in John Heywood's 1547 ''Dialogue Conteinying the Nomber in Effect of All the Proverbes in the Englishe Tongue'',. at a time when the penny was still a sterling silver coin. * "In for a penny, in for a pound," is a common expression used to express someone's intention to see an undertaking through, however much time, effort, or money this entails. * To "give (one's) tuppence/tuppenny/two'penneth (worth)", is a commonwealth saying that uses the words for two pence to share one's opinion, idea, or point of view, regardless of whether or not others want to hear it. A similar expression using the US term of cents is my two cents. * In British English, to "spend a penny" means to urinate. Its etymology is literal: coin-operated public toilets commonly charged a pre-decimal penny, beginning with the Great Exhibition of 1851. * "Tuppence" - Old British slang word for ‘vagina’. * Around
Decimal Day Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was Monday 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective £sd currency of pounds, shillings, and pence. Before this date, the British pound sterling (symbol "£" ...
in 1971,
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
introduced the "Superloo", improved public toilets that charged 2p (equivalent to nearly 5''d''). * In 1936 U.S. shoemaker G.H. Bass & Co. introduced its "Weejuns"
penny loafers Slip-ons are typically low, lace-less shoes. The style which is most commonly seen, known as a loafer or slippers in American culture, has a moccasin construction. One of the first designs was introduced in London by Wildsmith Shoes, called the ...
. Other companies followed with similar products. * A common myth is that a penny dropped from the
Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
would kill a person or crack the sidewalk. However, a penny is too light and has too much air resistance to acquire enough speed to do much damage since it reaches terminal velocity after falling about 50 feet.


List of pennies

* Australia:
penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
(1911–1964) and
cent Cent may refer to: Currency * Cent (currency), a one-hundredth subdivision of several units of currency * Penny (Canadian coin), a Canadian coin removed from circulation in 2013 * 1 cent (Dutch coin), a Dutch coin minted between 1941 and 1944 * ...
(1966–1992) * Bosnia and Herzegovina: (1998–present) * Canada:
cent Cent may refer to: Currency * Cent (currency), a one-hundredth subdivision of several units of currency * Penny (Canadian coin), a Canadian coin removed from circulation in 2013 * 1 cent (Dutch coin), a Dutch coin minted between 1941 and 1944 * ...
(1858–2012) * Denmark: (.–a. 1873) * England:
penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
(–1707) * Estonia: (1918–1927) * Falkland Islands: Falkland Islands penny (1974–present) * Finland: (1861–2002) * France: (–1794) * Various German states: (–2002) *
Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...
: Gibraltar penny (1988–present) *
Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...
, as an 8-''double'' coin ("Guernsey penny", 1830–1921) and of a
Guernsey pound The pound is the currency of Guernsey. Since 1921, Guernsey has been in currency union with the United Kingdom and the Guernsey pound is not a separate currency but is a local issue of sterling banknotes and coins, in a similar way to the bankno ...
(1921–71) and 1/100 of a Guernsey pound (1971–present) * Ireland: penny, as 1/240 Irish pound (1928–68) and as 1/100 Irish pound (1971–2002), and euro cent (2002–present) * Isle of Man: Manx penny (1668–present) * Jersey: Jersey penny (1841–present) * Netherlands:
penning Penning may refer to: __NOTOC__ Currency *Norwegian penning *Swedish penning People *Mike Penning (born 1957), British politician *Frans Michel Penning (1894–1953), Dutch physicist *Edmund Penning-Rowsell (1913–2002), British journalist * Lo ...
(8th–16th centuries) * New Zealand:
penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
(1940–1967) and
cent Cent may refer to: Currency * Cent (currency), a one-hundredth subdivision of several units of currency * Penny (Canadian coin), a Canadian coin removed from circulation in 2013 * 1 cent (Dutch coin), a Dutch coin minted between 1941 and 1944 * ...
(1967–1987) * Kingdom of Poland: (1917–1918) and (1918–1924) during
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
* Norway: (–1873) *
Saint Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
and
Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory o ...
: Saint Helena penny (1984–present) * Scotland:
Penny Scots The Penny Scots was a unit of the Pound Scots, the currency of Scotland until the Acts of Union 1707. The word "penny" ( gd, peighinn, but see below) was used in Scottish parlance for money generally; for example, a "penny-fee" was an expression ...
/ (–1707) *
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
: (–1548) * South Africa:
penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
(1923–) and
cent Cent may refer to: Currency * Cent (currency), a one-hundredth subdivision of several units of currency * Penny (Canadian coin), a Canadian coin removed from circulation in 2013 * 1 cent (Dutch coin), a Dutch coin minted between 1941 and 1944 * ...
(1961–2002) * Transvaal:
penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
(1892–1900) * United Kingdom: penny, as British pound (1707–1971) and as 1/100 British pound (1971–present) * United States:
cent Cent may refer to: Currency * Cent (currency), a one-hundredth subdivision of several units of currency * Penny (Canadian coin), a Canadian coin removed from circulation in 2013 * 1 cent (Dutch coin), a Dutch coin minted between 1941 and 1944 * ...
(1793–present) * Medieval Wales: (10th–13th centuries)


See also

* Coins of the pound sterling * Elongated coin (pressed penny) * Efforts to eliminate the penny in the United States *
History of the English penny (c. 600 – 1066) The history of the English penny can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the 7th century: to the small, thick silver coins known to contemporaries as ''pæningas'' or ''denarii'', though now often referred to as ''sceattas'' by numismat ...
*
Legal Tender Modernization Act The Legal Tender Modernization Act () was a bill proposed by United States Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona in 2002. Its main goal was to stop the continual production of pennies. The bill also mentions other provisions including: * Allows the Bu ...
*
One-cent coin (disambiguation) A one-cent coin or one-cent piece is a small-value coin minted for various decimal currencies using the cent as their hundredth subdivision. Examples include: * the United States one-cent coin, better known as the US penny * the Canadian one-cent ...
* Penny sizes of nails * Pennyweight *
Sen Sen may refer to: Surname * Sen (surname), a Bengali surname * Şen, a Turkish surname * A variant of the Serer patronym Sène Currency subunit * Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies: ** ...
, equivalent in Japan used between the 19th century and 1953 * Prutah


Notes


References


Citations


Bibliography

* . * . * . * * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * .


External links


Copper Penny Importance
– Blog post & video covering the importance of retaining copper pennies.
The MegaPenny Project
– A visualisation of what exponential numbers of pennies would look like.

– Pictures of English silver pennies from Anglo-Saxon times to the present.

– Pictures of English copper pennies from 1797 to 1860.
US Lincoln Penny
on the
Planet Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
Curiosity Rover (September 10, 2012). * * {{Superstitions, state=collapsed Luck