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penny
EntityQ234129· pop 42· linked from 1,467 articles

Also known as pennies, pence

A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is the formal name of the British penny ( p) and the de facto name of the American one-cent coin ( ¢).

~16 min read

Encyclopedic overview

17 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • History
  • Antiquity
  • Frankish Empire
  • England
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • South Africa
  • Criticism of continued use
  • In popular culture
  • List of pennies
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • Citations
  • Bibliography
  • External links

A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is the formal name of the British penny ( p) and the de facto name of the American one-cent coin ( ¢).

Penny is also the informal name of the cent unit of account in Canada, although the Canadian penny's production ended in 2012 and it was withdrawn from circulation in 2013.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “penny” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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