PENNY

PENNY is a monetary unit (plural forms pennies as coin and pence as unit of currency), originally a silver coin, weighed in the 7th century 1/240-th of a Saxon pound, but decreased in weight till in Elizabeth's time it was 1/63 of an ounce troy. It was at first indented with a cross so as to be broken for halfpennies and farthings, but silver coins of these denominations were coined by Edward I. Edward VI. stopped the farthings, and the halfpence were stopped in the Commonwealth. Copper coinage was established in 1672. In 1860 bronze pennies were introduced in place of copper ones. They are half the size of their predecessors, and intrinsically worth one-seventh of their nominal value.

Pre-1971 amounts of less than 1/- (one shilling) were denoted with a "d" which derived from the term "denarius", as in 2d, 6d, 10d.

The amounts of the decimal "new pence" less than £1 may be suffixed with "p", as in 2p, 5p, 26p, 72p.