# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785 "2024-07-25T15:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 90
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1781 "2025-03-04T00:06:08Z")
A penny is 1/100 of a British pound. Maybe from that ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1782 "2025-03-04T00:09:51Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Sooo, what’s the origin of “penny”? Come on, man, don’t leave us hanging! The word “penny” has been used for small copper-based coins for millennia. Proto-Germanic “panningaz” → Proto-West-Germanic “panning” → Old English “penning” → Middle English “penny”. > **[penny - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/penny#Etymology)** ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1783 "2025-03-04T00:10:16Z")
A penny is one twelfth of a shilling; a shilling is half a florin, or one fifth of a half-crown; a half-crown is a quarter of a pound. Hence, there were 240 pennies in a pound. An American cent was typically very close to the value of a British penny. One one-hundredth of a pound is presently called a pence. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1784 "2025-03-04T00:11:04Z")
Germanic languages express small fractions of coins that way: penny → pence is cognate with the German Pfennig, which was one hundredth of a Mark, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1785 "2025-03-04T00:11:07Z")
Prior to decimalization in 1971 a penny was 1/240th of one pound ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1786 "2025-03-04T00:19:31Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > One one-hundredth of a pound is presently called a pence. One one-hundredth of a pound is a penny. “Pence” is the plural. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1787 "2025-03-04T00:19:40Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Andy Griffith’s son Sam was arrested for CDV in 1992 after beating his two-months pregnant wife so badly that she miscarried. I did a bunch of searching to figure out what CDV could possibly mean in this sentence. Childhood domestic violence, perhaps? That doesn’t really quite fit. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1788 "2025-03-04T00:23:58Z")
Criminal Domestic Violence? Chronic Domestic Violence? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1789 "2025-03-04T00:34:29Z")
Well, color me surprised. I thought that those initials were somewhat more widely known in this context than they apparently are, as most hits on CDV crime come back to my residential state. Anyway, if anyone’s still interested and hasn’t figured it out, “criminal domestic violence.” ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1790 "2025-03-04T00:48:54Z")
Also never issued a ‘nickel,’ and originally the ‘nickel’ referred to. . . a penny! ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1791 "2025-03-04T00:52:37Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Anyway, if anyone’s still interested and hasn’t figured it out, “criminal domestic violence.” Does that mean some domestic violence is not criminal? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1792 "2025-03-04T00:59:10Z")
Wouldn’t know, as I didn’t come up with that particular TLA, but I suspect not. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1793 "2025-03-04T01:12:31Z")
My bad. There was (and is) a British coin of roughly similar value called a penny, and the name got transferred over in informal speech ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1794 "2025-03-04T01:54:21Z")
> [@Purchasing power of a penny in 1870?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purchasing-power-of-a-penny-in-1870/284114/31): > > Ok, in 1870 how did the British penny compare with the American cent? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1795 "2025-03-04T05:49:40Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Also never issued a ‘nickel,’ and originally the ‘nickel’ referred to. . . a penny! In related “interesting fact” news, the American dime is the only unit of currency which does not state its explicit value. The penny says “one cent,” the quarter says “quarter dollar,” every bill gives its dollar value, etc etc… but the dime says only “one dime.” (I would have sworn I read that in this thread, but a search uncovers nothing, so… enjoy!) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1796 "2025-03-04T05:59:44Z")
Doesn’t “dime” mean “tenth part” just as “cent” means “hundredth part”? Same root as “tithe”, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1797 "2025-03-04T06:02:25Z")
Sure, but it’s indirect. Most people wouldn’t know the etymology. People know the value because they’ve learned to associate “dime” with ten cents, not because they’re reverse-engineering the value based on the derived meaning. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1798 "2025-03-04T06:22:12Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > (I would have sworn I read that in this thread, but a search uncovers nothing, so… enjoy!) [Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/260) is the post in part one that mentions currency but does not address the part about the anonymity of the dime. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1799 "2025-03-04T07:37:16Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > A penny is 1/100 of a British pound. Maybe from that But in those days it would have been 1/240. At the then [exchange rates](https://www.measuringworth.com/datasets/exchangepound/result.php) a cent was worth roughly about the same as a British penny As a digressive aside, at one time, when the US $ waa about 4 to the pound, a half-crown coin (2s6d, i.e., 1/8 of a pound) might be jokily called “half a dollar”. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1800 "2025-03-04T07:39:06Z")
(Thinking back, I have a vague memory that I may have read it in the context of overseas tourism operators reluctantly accepting American currency, but disliking the dime, because the lack of an explicit value that could be read by front-line staff made conversion somewhat dicey. Search is failing me and the claim seems questionable, so I can’t point to anything more concrete. But the ambiguous value label is interesting by itself.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=89) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=91)