Penny
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[[Image:Penny.jpg|thumb|A one penny coin from [[Ghana]]]]
[[Image:Pennies.jpg|thumb|A variety of low value coins, including a (historical) [[Ireland|Irish]] 2 pence piece and many [[United States]] pennies.]]
[[Image:Various British Pennys.JPG|thumb|Two [[United Kingdom|British]] 2 pence coins (below) and a 5 pence coin (above)]]
[[Image:Silver1930penny.jpg|thumb|A silver copy of the rare and valuable 1930 Australian penny]]
A '''penny''' (pl. '''pence''' or '''pennies''') is a [[coin]] or a unit of [[currency]] used in several [[English language|English]]-speaking countries.
==Value==
In the 8th century, [[Charlemagne]] declared that 240 pennies or [[pfennig]]s should be minted from a pound of silver. A single coin thus contained about 1.9 grams of silver. (Today, this amount of silver would cost about 56p sterling.)
The penny is among the lowest denomination of coins in circulation.
* 1/100 of the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[pound sterling]] (''see [[British one penny coin]]''), the former [[Irish pound]], the [[Gibraltar pound]], the [[Falkland Islands pound]], or a [[coin]] with that value: see [[history of the English penny]].
* 1/240 of the British pound sterling or Irish pound prior to [[February 15]], [[1971]], of the [[Pound Scots]] prior to 1707, and also the pre-[[decimalisation]] currencies of [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]] and [[South Africa]] (1/12 of the [[shilling]]), or a coin of that value.
* a common but unofficial name for the one-cent coin in the [[United States]] and in [[Canada]], worth 1/100 of the [[dollar]]: see [[Cent (United States coin)|penny (U.S. coin)]], [[penny (Canadian coin)]]. This word is not used by the [[United States Mint]] or the [[Royal Canadian Mint]]; they use '''cent'''.
In addition, variants of the word ''penny'', with which they share a common [[root (linguistics)|root]], are or were the names of certain units of currency in non-English-speaking countries:
* A [[fening]] is 1/100 of a [[Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark]]
* A [[pfennig]] was 1/100 of a [[German mark]]
* A [[penni]] was 1/100 of a [[Finnish markka]]
In the [[United States]] and [[Canada]], "penny" is normally used to refer to the coin; the quantity of money is a "[[Cent (currency)|cent]]." Elsewhere in the [[English language|English]]-speaking world, the plural of "penny" is "pence" when referring to a quantity of money and "pennies" when referring to a number of [[coin]]s<ref>{{cite web|title="Penny - Oxford English Dictionary"|publisher=oed.com|url=http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/penny?view=uk}}</ref>. Thus a coin worth five times as much as one penny is worth five pence, but "five pennies" means five coins, each of which is a penny.
When dealing with British or Irish (pound) money, amounts of the decimal "new pence" less than £1 may be suffixed with "p", as in 2p, 5p, 26p, 72p. 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 lettering "new pence" was changed to "pence" on British decimal coinage in 1982. Irish pound decimal coinage only used "p" to designate units (possibly as this sufficed for both the English word "pence", and Irish form "pingin").
The [[British one penny coin (pre-decimal)| British penny]] as a unit of currency dates back well over a thousand years, and for [[British one penny coin (pre-decimal)|most of that period]] the silver penny was the principal denomination in circulation.
==Other uses==
{{Coin image box 2 singles
| header =
| image_left= Image:Aethelred_obv2.jpg
| image_right = Image:Aethelred_rev2.jpg
| caption_left = [[Obverse and reverse|'''O:''']] Draped bust of Aethelred left. +ÆĐELRED REX ANGLOR
| caption_right = [[Obverse and reverse|'''R:''']] Long cross. +EADǷOLD MO CÆNT
| width_left = 150
| width_right = 150
| position = left
| margin =4
| footer = [[Anglo-Saxon]] silver 'Long Cross' penny of [[Aethelred II]], moneyer Eadwold, Canterbury, ''c.'' 997-1003. The cross made cutting the coin into half-pennies or [[farthing]]s (quarter-pennies) easier. (Note spelling ''Eadƿold'' in inscription, using Anglo-Saxon letter [[wynn]] in place of modern ''[[w]].'')
}}
To "spend a penny" in British [[idiom]] means to [[urinate]]. The etymology of the phrase is literal; some public toilets used to be coin-operated, with a pre-decimal penny being the charge levied. Eventually, at around the same time as the introduction of [[Decimal Day|decimal coinage]], [[British Rail]] gradually introduced better public toilets with the name ''Superloo'' and the much higher charge of 6d.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/topics/railways/ BBC Nation on Film - Rise and Fall of LNER] Mod Cons - Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Siding: "Spend a 6d in the superloo"</ref>
Finding a penny is sometimes considered lucky and gives rise to the saying, "Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day: you'll have good luck." This may be a corruption of "See a pin and pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck" and similar verses, as quoted in The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore and other sources.
==Nails==
In the US, the length of a nail is designated by its ''penny size''. This unit's abbreviation is '''''d''''' (e.g. 10d for 10 penny nails), as for British pence before decimalization. A smaller number indicates a shorter nail and a larger number indicates a longer nail. Nails under 1¼ in., often called brads, are sold mostly in small packages with only a length designation (e.g. ½" (12 mm), 1⅛" (28 mm), etc.).
It is commonly believed that the origin of the term "penny" in relation to nail size is based on the old custom in England of selling nails by the hundred. A hundred nails that sold for six pence were "six penny" nails. The larger the nail, the more a hundred nails would cost, hence the larger nails have a larger number for their ''penny size''. This classification system was still used in England in the 18th century, but is obsolete there now.
==Criticism==
The physical handling and counting of pennies creates [[transaction costs]] that may be higher than a penny for every penny spent. Furthermore, as has been claimed for [[micropayment]]s, due to mental transaction costs one penny may exceed the useful price granularity of almost all products and services sold over the counter—granularities of five or ten pence may be sufficient.<ref>http://www.mytelus.com/ncp_news/article.en.do?pn=canada&articleID=2897480</ref> Also, inflation periodically causes the metal value of pennies to exceed their face value, making them wasteful to mint.<ref>New York Times, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905EEDA1039F932A35757C0A967948260 AROUND THE NATION; Treasurer Says Zinc Penny May Save $50 Million a Year]", April 1, 1981</ref><ref>USA Today, Barbara Hagenbaugh, "[http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-05-09-penny-usat_x.htm Coins cost more to make than face value]", May 10, 2006</ref> Several nations have stopped minting equivalent value coins, and efforts have been made to end the routine use of pennies in several countries, including [[Canada]] and the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite web | last = Lewis | first = Mark | title = Ban The Penny | publisher = Forbes.com | date = 2002-07-05 | url = http://www.forbes.com/2002/07/05/0705penny.html | accessdate = 2007-07-16 }}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Penny (Australian)|Penny (Australian coin)]]
* [[British one penny coin|Penny (British coin)]]
** [[British one penny coin (pre-decimal)]]
** [[British coinage]]
* [[Penny (Canadian coin)]]
* [[Irish penny coin]]
**[[Irish penny (decimal coin)]]
* [[Cent (United States coin)|Penny (United States coin)]]
** [[United States coinage]]
** [[History of the Lincoln cent]]
** [[1943 steel cent]]
** [[1955 doubled die cent]]
** [[1974 aluminum cent]]
** [[Take a penny, leave a penny]]
** [[Legal Tender Modernization Act]]
** [[Efforts to eliminate the penny in the United States]]
* [[Pfennig]]
* [[Elongated coin|Smashed penny]]
==References==
<references/>
==External links==
* [http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/default.asp The MegaPenny Project] - A visualisation of what exponential numbers of pennies would look like.
* [http://www.ukcoinpics.co.uk/pen1.html Silver Pennies] - Pictures of English silver pennies from Anglo-Saxon times to the present.
* [http://www.ukcoinpics.co.uk/pen2.html Copper Pennies] - Pictures of English copper pennies from 1797 to 1860.
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[[Category:Coins]]
[[Category:Luck]]
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