# Pennies and Cents **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2006, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647 "2006-08-14T11:02:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/1 "2006-08-14T11:02:35Z")
Here in the UK our currency is pounds and pence, we don’t call our pennies cents. USA currency is dollars and cents so why do you call your cents pennies 😕 ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/2 "2006-08-14T11:04:52Z")
I thought the Americans did call their cents pennies sometimes? (The song, Pennies From Heaven,k etc). ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/3 "2006-08-14T11:06:11Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I thought the Americans did call their cents pennies sometimes? (The song, Pennies From Heaven,k etc). Yes they do and I’m asking why 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/4 "2006-08-14T11:09:36Z")
It’s a colloquialism from dating from at least 1889, [apparently](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=penny). Which only postdates the existence of the unit in America by a hundred years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/5 "2006-08-14T11:13:24Z")
My WAG would be that ‘penny’ describes the physical properties of the _actual coin_ - i.e. a circular piece of copper, whereas ‘cent’ describes one hundredth of a dollar - a notional unit of currency. These are two slightly different things - it just happens that we use the same term (‘penny’) for _both_ of them in England. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/6 "2006-08-14T11:14:01Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > It’s a colloquialism from dating from at least 1889, [apparently](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=penny). Which only postdates the existence of the unit in America by a hundred years or so. Thanks. I often wondered about this ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/7 "2006-08-14T11:18:45Z")
Borrowed from you Brits – a “penny” is, after all, a very common referent for a small item of currency, in everything from Bible to proverbs to popular song. Both are, in the modern era, small copper-alloy coins. So “penny” became slang for “one-cent piece.” ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/8 "2006-08-14T11:20:46Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > My WAG would be that ‘penny’ describes the physical properties of the _actual coin_ - i.e. a circular piece of copper, whereas ‘cent’ describes one hundredth of a dollar - a notional unit of currency. > > These are two slightly different things - it just happens that we use the same term (‘penny’) for _both_ of them in England. In the singular, yes, though we do differentiate when it comes to larger sums: twenty pence is not necessarily twenty pennies. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/9 "2006-08-14T11:25:22Z")
OK that’s pennies sorted. Now then why do you call your 5c and 10c coins nickels and dimes (or is it the other way around?) I mean our coinage, since decimalisation in 1971, has no slang? for it. 10p is ten pence, 20p is twenty and so on. Pre 1971 6d was a tanner, 1/0d was a bob, 5/0d was half a dollar, £1 was a quid ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/10 "2006-08-14T11:32:14Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > Pre 1971 6d was a tanner, 1/0d was a bob, 5/0d was half a dollar, £1 was a quid £1 still is a quid. And 2/6d was half a crown, though I don’t suppose that counts as slang since the coin actually had “HALF CROWN” on it. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/11 "2006-08-14T11:35:00Z")
Well, heck. A ‘nickel’ was originally made of, well, nickel. And I’m pretty sure ‘dime’ has some latin root in ‘tenth’ or somesuch. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/12 "2006-08-14T11:35:19Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > Yes they do and I’m asking why 😃 D’oh! :smack: Sorry, **chowder** , I misread your question. Normal service will now be resumed. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/13 "2006-08-14T11:37:32Z")
> [@Alive At Both Ends](#): > > £1 still is a quid. And 2/6d was half a crown, though I don’t suppose that counts as slang since the coin actually had “HALF CROWN” on it. Yes it did, I just 'membered. What was a silver threepenny bit called? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/14 "2006-08-14T11:38:31Z")
‘Nickel’ comes from the metal used to make the coins at one stage, and ‘dime’ is an official name (like half crown), meaning ‘tenth’. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/15 "2006-08-14T11:39:36Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > What was a silver threepenny bit called? A Mack. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/16 "2006-08-14T11:42:38Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > A Mack. > > 😃 A little mac as opposed to a big 'un 😛 I think, having trawled through my grey matter, it was called a “Joey” or a “Jimmy” or summat 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/17 "2006-08-14T12:06:04Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > I mean our coinage, since decimalisation in 1971, has no slang? for it. Given time, I’m sure it will. Besides, it _does_ have slang; a pound coin is commonly called a ‘nug’ or ‘nugget’ (as distinct from ‘quid’, which refers to the monetary unit). Can’t think of any more examples, but I bet they’re out there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/18 "2006-08-14T12:23:14Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > I think, having trawled through my grey matter, it was called a “Joey” or a “Jimmy” or summat 😃 A “Joey”. But it was only the silver ones that were called that. The 12-sided brass ones didn’t have a name that I recall. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/19 "2006-08-14T12:26:55Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > Here in the UK our currency is pounds and pence, we don’t call our pennies cents. > USA currency is dollars and cents so why do you call your cents pennies 😕 A penny is **one percent** of a dollar! Hence **one cent** or **cent** for short. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647/20 "2006-08-14T12:33:06Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > A penny is **one percent** of a dollar! > Hence **one cent** or **cent** for short. Bwuh? ‘Cent’ is not short for ‘percent’. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pennies-and-cents/368647.md?page=2)