| Penny in History | |
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 Did the first Penny look like this? |
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The exact origin of the word penny are not know for sure. Some feel "Penny" is derived from Penda, the name of an eighth-century English (Mercian) King. A coin was minted during his reign that was called the penig or pennig. Others feel the term penny comes from the Viking name for the pans into which the molten metal for making coins was poured. In either case that coin was made from about 22.5 grams of silver and would be worth about 117 US dollars today. 1,200 years or so later we still have a penny coin but it now denotes the lowest denomination of currency in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The United States got its first penny by an Act of Congress on June 20, 1792. Many countries still use a penny coin, even though some feel their version should be eliminated. Today, the U.S. penny is made mostly of zinc and costs about 6/10 of a cent to make. Guess how many pennies are estimated to be in circulation today? More than 136 billion pennies (thats one billion plus dollars ). And you think you have a large collection of pennies. |
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Send any penny trivia you want to share to the Monger. |
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