Penny (English Coin)
The English Penny, originally a coin of 1.3 to 1.5 g pure silver, includes the penny introduced around 785 by King Offa of Mercia. His coins were similar in size and weight to the continental deniers of the period, and to the Anglo-Saxon sceats which had gone before it, which were probably also called "pence".
Throughout the period of the Kingdom of England, from its beginnings in the 9th century, the penny was produced in silver. Pennies of the same nominal value, one 240th of a pound sterling, were in circulation continuously until the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.
Read more about Penny (English Coin): History, Pennies By Period
Famous quotes containing the word penny:
“There is no passion more dominant and instinctive in the human spirit than the need of the country to which one belongs.... The time comes when nothing in the world is so important as a breath of one’s own particular climate. If it were one’s last penny it would be used for that return passage.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)