| History Of The English Penny |
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: ''For silver pennies produced after 1820 see Maundy Money '' The silver penny was introduced to England around the year 785 by King Offa Of Mercia , in the English midlands. The currency was decimalised in 1971 which meant the discontinuation of the penny at that time. A new penny was minted that was worth 2.4 times the value of the old coin. The name ''penny'' comes from the Old English ''pennige'' (roughly pronounced "penny-yeah", IPA {Link without Title} ). It shares its roots with the German '' Pfennig '', which was a German denomination. The coins were similar in size and weight to the continental '' Denier s'' of the period. The abbreviation d. comes from the Roman '' Denarius '' and was used until Decimalisation in 1971.than in England. In the reign of Ethelred The Unready (978–1016), some 40 million pennies were paid to the Danes, while King Canute (Knut) (1016–1035) paid off his invasion army with another 20 million pennies. This adds up to about 2,800,000 Troy Ounce s (87 Tonne s) of silver, equivalent to £ 250,000 at the time, and worth about £10 million in Today's money (however its purchasing power at that time may have exceeded £100 million and as high £1 billion of today's currency). The penny initially weighed 20 to 22.5 Grain s (1.3 to 1.5 g) of pure silver. It was standardized to 1/240th of a Tower Pound (approx. 350 G ). The alloy was set to Sterling Silver of 925/1000 in 1158 under King Henry II . The weight standard was changed to the Troy Pound (373.242 g) in 1528 under Henry VIII , i.e. a Pennyweight became about 1.555 Gram s. 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 the Reverse side of the coin. From the time of King Offa, the penny was the only denomination of coin minted in England for 500 years, until the attempted Gold Coinage issue of King Henry III , and the later Issues of King Edward III . See also: British Coinage PENNIES BY PERIOD
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