The denier was a Frankish coin created by Charlemagne in the Early Middle Ages. It was introduced together with an accounting system in which twelve deniers equaled one sou and twenty sous equalled one livre. Also three deniers equalled one liard. This system and the denier itself served as the model for many of Europe's currencies, including the British pound, Italian lira, Spanish peseta and the Portuguese dinheiro.
The British equivalent of the denier was the penny, 240 of which (prior to decimalisation) made up one British pound or 20 shillings. The symbol for both the old denier and, until decimalisation, the penny used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere was "d".
The name denier was derived from the name of the Roman coin the denarius.
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“To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.”
—Marilyn French (20th century)