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Penny

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This article is about the coin. For other uses of "penny" or "pennies", seePenny (disambiguation).
"Pence" redirects here. For other uses, seePence (disambiguation).

Apennyis acoin(pl.:pennies) or a unit ofcurrency(pl.:pence) in various countries. Borrowed from theCarolingiandenarius(hence its former abbreviationd.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is the formal name of theBritish penny(abbr.p) and thede factoname of theAmerican one-cent coin(abbr.¢) as well as the informal Irish designation of the1 euro cent coin(abbr.c). Due toinflation,pennies have lost virtually all theirpurchasing powerand are often viewed as an expensive burden to merchants, banks, governmentmintsand the public in general.

1911 Australian penny
Coin of Eric Bloodaxe
A 1911Australian penny(top). Coin ofEric Bloodaxe(bottom) with legend readingEric Rex( "King Eric" )

Pennyis also the informal name of the centunit of accountin Canada, althoughone-cent coinswereremoved from circulationin 2012.[1]

The namepennyis also used in reference to various historical currencies, also derived from theCarolingian system,such as theFrenchdenierand theGermanpfennig.It may also be informally used to refer to any similar smallest-denomination coin, such as theeuro centorChinese fen.

TheCarolingian pennywas originally a 0.940-finesilvercoin, weighing1⁄240pound.It was adopted byOffa of Merciaand 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. TheBritish pennyremained a silver coin until the expense of theNapoleonic Warsprompted the use ofbase metalsin 1797. Despite the decimalization of currencies in the United States and, later, throughout theBritish Commonwealth,the name remains in informal use.

No penny is currently formally subdivided, althoughfarthings(1⁄4d),halfpennies,andhalf centshave previously been minted and themill(1⁄10¢) remains in use as aunit of accountin some contexts.

Etymology

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From top to bottom: a penny depicting KingOffa of Mercia;a 1929 South African penny; a 2013 one-cent coin from the United States (colloquially called a penny). Worth1⁄100of 1 USD (US dollar). As a decimal, it is written as $0.01.

Pennyis first attested in a 1394Scotstext,[n 1]a variant ofOld Englishpeni,a development of numerous variations includingpennig,penning,andpending.[n 2]The etymology of the term "penny" is uncertain, although cognates are common across almost allGermanic languages[n 3]and suggest a base *pan-,*pann-,or *pand-with the individualizing suffix-ing.Common suggestions include that it was originally *pandingas aLow Franconianform ofOld High Germanpfant"pawn" (in the sense of a pledge or debt, as in apawnbrokerputting up collateral as a pledge for repayment of loans); *panningas a form of the West Germanic word for "frying pan",presumably owing to its shape; and *pondingas a very early borrowing ofLatinpondus( "pound").[3]Recently, it has been proposed that it may represent an early borrowing ofPunicpn(PaneorPene,"Face" ), as the face ofCarthaginian goddessTanitwas represented on nearly allCarthaginian currency.[4]Followingdecimalization,the British and Irish coins were marked "new penny" until 1982 and 1985, respectively.

From the 16th century, the regular pluralpenniesfell 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,[3]where, however, the informal "penny" is typically only used of the coins in any case, values being expressed in "cents".[5]The informal name for the American cent seems to have spread fromNew York State.[6]

In Britain, prior to decimalization, values from two to eleven pence were often written, and spoken as a single word, astwopenceortuppence,threepenceorthruppence,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, asa 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, assixpence-farthing,and such constructions were also treated as single nouns. Adjectival use of such coins used the ending -penny, assixpenny.[3]

The British abbreviationd.derived from theLatindenarius.It followed the amount, e.g. "11d". It has been replaced since decimalization byp,usually written without a space orperiod.From this abbreviation, it is common to speak of pennies and values in pence as "p".[3]InNorth America,it is common to abbreviate cents with thecurrency symbol¢.Elsewhere, it is usually written with a simplec.

History

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Antiquity

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Main articles:Drachma,Shekel,andDenarius

The medieval silver penny was modeled on similar coins in antiquity, such as theGreek drachma,theCarthaginianshekel,and theRomandenarius.Forms of these seem to have reached as far asNorwayandSweden.[citation needed]The use ofRoman currencyinBritain,seems to have fallen off after theRoman withdrawaland subsequentSaxon invasions.

Frankish Empire

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Main article:French denier

Charlemagne's fatherPepin the Shortinstituted amajor currency reformaroundAD 755,[7]aiming to reorganizeFrancia's previoussilver standardwith a standardized.940-finedenier(Latin:denarius) weighing1⁄240pound.[8](As theCarolingian poundseems to have been about 489.5grams,[9][10]each penny weighed about 2grams.) Around 790,Charlemagneintroduced a new.950 or.960-fine penny with a smaller diameter. Surviving specimens have an average weight of1.70 grams,although some estimate the original ideal[clarification needed]mass at1.76 grams.[11][12][13]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.[14]

England

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Main articles:English penny,Gold penny,History of the halfpenny,Farthing (English coin),andMaundy money
O:Draped bust of Aethelred left.+ÆĐELRED REX ANGLOR[UM] R:Long cross.+EADǷOLD MO CÆNT
Anglo-Saxonsilver "Long Cross" penny ofAethelred II,moneyer Eadwold, Canterbury,c. 997–1003. The cross made cutting the coin into half-pennies orfarthings(quarter-pennies) easier. (Note spellingEadƿoldin inscription, using Anglo-Saxon letterwynnin place of modernw.)

Some of theAnglo-Saxonkingdoms initially copied thesolidus,the late Romangold coin;at the time, however,goldwas 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 miscellaneoussilversceattasminted inFrisiaandAnglo-Saxon Englandafter around 680 were probably known as "pennies" at the time. (The misnomer is based on a probable misreading of the Anglo-Saxon legal codes.)[15]Their purity varied and their weight fluctuated from about 0.8 to about 1.3 grams. They continued to be minted inEast AngliaunderBeonnaand inNorthumbriaas late as the mid-9th century.

The first Carolingian-style pennies were introduced byKingOffa of Mercia(r.757–796), modeled on Pepin's system. His first series was1⁄240of theSaxon poundof5400grains(350 grams),giving apennyweightof about1.46grams.His queenCynethrythalso minted these coins under her own name.[16]Near the end of his reign, Offa minted his coins in imitation of Charlemagne's reformed pennies. Offa's coins were imitated byEast Anglia,Kent,WessexandNorthumbria,as well as by twoArchbishops of Canterbury.[16]As in the Frankish Empire,[8]all these pennies were notionally fractions ofshillings(solidi;sol) andpounds(librae;livres) but during this period neither larger unit was minted. Instead, they functioned only as notionalunits of account.[17](For instance, a "shilling" or "solidus" of grain was a measure equivalent to the amount of grain that 12 pennies could purchase.)[18]English currency was notionally.925-finesterling silverat the time ofHenry II,but the weight and value of the silver penny steadily declined from 1300 onwards.

In 1257,Henry IIIminted agold pennywhich had the nominal value of 1 shilling 8 pence (i.e. 20d.). At first, the coin proved unpopular because it was overvalued for its weight; by 1265 it was so undervalued—thebullionvalue of its gold being worth 2 shillings (i.e. 24d.) 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.[19]It was not until the reign ofEdward IIIthat theflorinandnobleestablished a common gold currency in England.

A worn medieval penny, probably dating from the reigns of Henry VI–VII, AD 1413–1461

The earliesthalfpennyandfarthing(¼d.) found date from the reign ofHenry III.The need for small change was also sometimes met by simply cutting a full penny into halves or quarters. In 1527,Henry VIIIabolished theTower poundof 5400grains,replacing it with theTroy poundof 5760 grains (making a penny 5760/240 = 24 grains) and establishing a newpennyweightof 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 ofCharles IIaround 1660. Since then, they have only been coined for issue asMaundy money,royalalmsgiven to the elderly onMaundy Thursday.

United Kingdom

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Main articles:Predecimal British penny,Predecimal British halfpenny,British farthing,Decimal Day,British penny,andBritish halfpenny

Throughout the 18th century, the British government did not mint pennies for general circulation and thebullionvalue of the existing silver pennies caused them to be withdrawn from circulation. Merchants and mining companies, such asAnglesey'sParys Mining Co.,began to issue their owncopper tokensto fill the need for small change.[20]Finally, amid theNapoleonic Wars,the government authorizedMatthew Boultonto mint copper pennies and twopences atSoho MintinBirminghamin 1797.[21]Typically, 1 lb. of copper produced 24 pennies. In 1860, the copper penny was replaced with abronzeone (95% copper, 4%tin,1%zinc). Each pound of bronze was coined into 48 pennies.[22]

United States

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Main article:Penny (United States coin)

The United States' cent, popularly known as the "penny" since the early 19th century,[6]began with the unpopularcopperchain centin 1793.[23]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.[24]

South Africa

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The penny that was brought to theCape Colony(in what is nowSouth Africa) was a large coin—36 mm in diameter, 3.3 mm thick, and 1 oz (28 g)—and the twopence was correspondingly larger at 41 mm in diameter, 5 mm thick and 2 oz (57 g). On them wasBritanniawith atridentin her hand. The English called this coin theCartwheel pennydue to its large size and raised rim,[25]but theCapetoniansreferred to it as theDevil's Penny as they assumed that only the Devil used a trident.[26]The coins were very unpopular due to their large weight and size.[27]On 6 June 1825,Lord Charles Somerset,the governor, issued aproclamationthat onlyBritish Sterlingwould belegal tenderin theCape Colony(colonialSouth 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 anddenominationof the 1816 British coins, with the exception of the four-penny coins, were used in South Africa until 1960.[26]

Criticism of continued use

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See also:Withdrawal of low-denomination coins

Handling and counting penny coins entailtransaction coststhat may be higher than a penny. It has been claimed that, formicropayments,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.[28][29]

Canada adopted 5¢ as its lowest denomination in 2012.[30]Several nations have stopped minting equivalent value coins, and efforts have been made to end the routine use of pennies in several countries.[31]In the UK, since 1992, one- and two-penny coins have been made from copper-plated steel (making them magnetic) instead of bronze.

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  • In British and American culture, finding a penny is traditionally consideredlucky.A proverbial expression of this is "Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck."[n 4]
  • "A penny for your thoughts" is an idiomatic way of asking someone what they are thinking about. It is first attested inJohn Heywood's 1547Dialogue Conteinying the Nomber in Effect of All the Proverbes in the Englishe Tongue,[33]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 ismy two cents.
  • In British English, to "spend a penny" means to urinate. Itsetymologyis literal: coin-operatedpublic toiletscommonly charged a pre-decimal penny, beginning withthe Great Exhibitionof 1851.
  • "Tuppence" - Old British slang word for ‘vagina’.[34]
  • In 1936 U.S.shoemakerG.H. Bass & Co.introduced its "Weejuns"penny loafers.Other companies followed with similar products.
  • A common myth is that a penny dropped from theEmpire State Buildingwould 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 reachesterminal velocityafter falling about 50 feet.[35][36]

List of pennies

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^"He sal haf a penny til his noynsankys..."[2]
  2. ^TheOxford English Dictionarynotes two families of variants, one comprisingpæning,pending,peninc,penincg,pening,peningc,andNorthumbrianpenningand the otherpeneg,pennig,pænig,penig,penug,pæni,andpeni,the later of which gave rise to the modern form.[3]
  3. ^Germanic cognates ofpennyincludeDutch,Danish,Swedish,andOld SaxonpenningandGerman:Pfennigin reference to the coin andIcelandic:peningur,Swedishpengar,andDanish:pengein reference to "money".Gothic,however, has𐍃𐌺𐌰𐍄𐍄𐍃(skatts) for the occurrence of "denarius" (‹See Tfd›Greek:δηνάριος,dēnários) in theNew Testament.[3]
  4. ^This may be the source or a development of the "See a pin and pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck" recorded in a mid-19th century edition ofMother Goose.[32]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^"Canada's Last Penny Minted".CBC News.Archivedfrom the original on 2012-09-04.Retrieved2012-08-30..
  2. ^Slater, J. (1952),Early Scots Texts,Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
  3. ^abcdef"penny,n.",Oxford English Dictionary,3rd ed.,2005.
  4. ^Vennemann, Theo(2013). "Ne'er-a-Face: A Note on the Etymology ofPenny,with an Appendix on the Etymology ofPane".In Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna (ed.).Germania Semitica.Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs,No. 259. Walter de Gruyter. p. 467.ISBN978-3-11-030109-0.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-02-25.Retrieved2016-02-08..
  5. ^The New Statesman,London: Statesman Publishing, 16 December 1966, p. 896.
  6. ^abConstellation,12 March 1831, p. 133.
  7. ^Allen (2009).
  8. ^abChown (1994),p.23.
  9. ^Ferguson (1974),"Pound".
  10. ^Munro (2012),p.31.
  11. ^Cipolla (1993),p.129.
  12. ^Frassetto (2003),p.131.
  13. ^NBB (2006).
  14. ^Suchodolski (1983).
  15. ^Bosworth & al.
  16. ^abBlackburn & al. (1986),p. 277.
  17. ^Keary (2005),p. xxii.
  18. ^Scott (1964),p. 40.
  19. ^"The Gold Penny",Coin and Bullion Pages,archivedfrom the original on 2016-02-10,retrieved2016-02-17.
  20. ^Selgin (2008),p.16.
  21. ^"The Cartwheel Penny and Twopence of 1797",British Coinage,Royal Mint Museum,retrieved15 May2014[permanent dead link‍].
  22. ^EB(1911).
  23. ^"Timeline",Historian's Corner,Washington:US Mint,archivedfrom the original on 2011-02-25,retrieved2011-01-30.
  24. ^"Penny History - Americans for Common Cents".
  25. ^Severn Internet Services – severninternet.co.uk."Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Information Centre".BMAGiC.Archivedfrom the original on 2012-02-21.Retrieved2011-12-22.
  26. ^ab"South African History of Coins".Archivedfrom the original on 2011-11-28.Retrieved2009-06-03.
  27. ^"Currencyhelp.net".Currencyhelp.net.Archivedfrom the original on 2008-05-30.Retrieved2011-12-22.
  28. ^"Around the Nation; Treasurer Says Zinc Penny May Save $50 Million a Year",The New York Times,1 April 1981,archivedfrom the original on 11 April 2012,retrieved2009-05-07
  29. ^Hagenbaugh, Barbara (10 May 2006),Coins cost more to make than face value,USA Today,archivedfrom the original on 7 March 2009,retrieved2009-05-07
  30. ^Smith, Joanna (30 March 2012),"Federal Budget 2012: Pennies to Be Withdrawn from Circulation",The Star,Toronto,archivedfrom the original on 6 October 2016,retrieved8 September2017{{citation}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  31. ^Lewis, Mark (5 July 2002)."Ban The Penny".Forbes.Archivedfrom the original on 22 May 2009.Retrieved2009-05-07.
  32. ^Mother Goose's Chimes, Rhymes, & Melodies,H.B. Ashmead, c. 1861,archivedfrom the original on 9 January 2012,retrieved14 November2009.
  33. ^Corrado, John (11 October 2001),"What's the Origin of" A Penny for Your Thoughts "?",The Straight Dope,archivedfrom the original on 23 July 2011,retrieved13 February2013.
  34. ^"Why Winkle and Tuppence are acceptable euphemisms for children".The Guardian.2017-05-05.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-09-16.
  35. ^"Could a Penny Dropped off a Skyscraper Actually Kill You?".Scientific American.
  36. ^"What would happen if you were hit by a penny falling from a skyscraper?".USA Today.
  37. ^Gullbekk, Svein H. (2014), "Vestfold: A Monetary Perspective on the Viking Age",Early Medieval Monetary History: Studies in Memory of Mark Blackburn,Studies in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland, Farnham: Ashgate, p.343,ISBN9781409456681,archivedfrom the original on 2016-05-30,retrieved2016-02-08.

Bibliography

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