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| History of the English penny |
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The Englishpenny (plural "pence"), originally a coin of 1.3 to 1.5 grams (0.042 to 0.048troy ounces; 0.046 to 0.053ounces) pure silver, was introducedc. 785 by KingOffa of Mercia. These coins were similar in size and weight to the continentaldeniers of the period and to theAnglo-Saxonsceats which had preceded it.
Throughout the period of theKingdom of England, from its beginnings in the 9th century, thepenny was produced in silver. Pennies of the same nominal value,1⁄240 of apound sterling, were in circulation continuously until the creation of theKingdom of Great Britain in 1707.[1]
Due to their ubiquity pennies have accumulated a great number of idioms to their name usually recognizing them for their commonality and minuscule value. These might include:[2]
Anglo-Saxon silver pennies were the currency used to pay theDanegeld, essentially protection money paid to theVikings so that they would go away and not ravage the land. As an illustration of how heavy a burden the Danegeld was, more Anglo-Saxon pennies from the decades around the first millennium have been found in Denmark than in England. In the reign ofEthelred the Unready (978–1016), some 40 million pennies were paid to the Danes, whileKing Canute (Knut) (1016–1035) paid off his invasion army with another 20 million pennies. This adds up to about 2,800,000troy ounces (87 tonnes; 96 short tons) of silver, equivalent to£250,000 at the time, and worth about £10 million in 2005[update] money (its purchasing power at that time may have exceeded £100 million and may have been as high as £1 billion in 2005).[citation needed]
The penny initially weighed 20 to 22.5modern grains (1.3 to 1.5 g). It was standardized to 32 Tower grains,1⁄240 of aTower pound (approx. 350 g). The alloy was set tosterling silver of .925fineness in 1158 underKing Henry II. The weight standard was changed to theTroy pound (373.242 g) in 1527 underHenry VIII, i.e. apennyweight became about 1.555grams. As the purity and weight of the coin was critical, the name of the moneyer who manufactured the coin, and at which mint, often appeared on thereverse side of the coin.
From the time of KingOffa, the penny was the only denomination of coin minted in England for 500 years, until the attemptedgold coinage issue of KingHenry III in 1257 and a few halfpennies and farthings in 1222, the introduction of the groat by KingEdward I in 1279, under whom the halfpenny and farthing were also reintroduced, and the laterissues of KingEdward III.
At the time of the 1702 London Mint Assay by SirIsaac Newton, the silver content of British coinage was defined to be onetroy ounce ofsterling silver for 62 pence, or502 mg per penny. Therefore, the value of the monetarypound sterling was equivalent to only 3.87 troy ounces (120 g) of sterling silver. This was the standard from 1601 to 1816.
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