Editing Penny (section)

===England===
{{main|English penny|Gold penny|History of the halfpenny|Farthing (English coin)|Maundy money}}
{{Coin image box 2 singles
|image_left   = Image:Coin of Æthelred the Unready.jpg
|image_right  = Image:Aethelred rev2.jpg
|caption_left = '''[[Obverse and reverse|O:]]''' Draped bust of Aethelred left. {{lang|ang|+ÆĐELRED REX ANGLOR[UM]|italic=no}}
|caption_right= '''[[Obverse and reverse|R:]]''' Long cross. {{lang|ang|+EADǷOLD MO CÆNT|italic=no}}
|width_left   = 150
|width_right  = 150
|position     = left
|margin       = 4
|footer       = [[Anglo-Saxon]] silver "Long Cross" penny of [[Aethelred II]], moneyer Eadwold, Canterbury, {{circa|997}}–1003. The cross made cutting the coin into half-pennies or [[farthing (British coin)|farthings]] (quarter-pennies) easier.  (Note spelling ''Eadƿold'' in inscription, using Anglo-Saxon letter [[wynn]] in place of modern ''w''.)}}
Some of the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] kingdoms initially copied the [[solidus (coin)|solidus]], the late Roman [[gold coin]]; at the time, however, [[gold]] was so rare and valuable that even the smallest coins had such a great value that they could only be used in very large transactions and were sometimes not available at all. Around 641–670, there seems to have been a movement to use coins with lower gold content. This decreased their value and may have increased the number that could be minted, but these paler coins do not seem to have solved the problem of the value and scarcity of the currency. The miscellaneous [[silver coin|silver]] [[sceattas]] minted in [[Frisia]] and [[Anglo-Saxon England]] after around 680 were probably known as "pennies" at the time. (The misnomer is based on a probable misreading of the Anglo-Saxon legal codes.){{sfn|Bosworth & al}} Their purity varied and their weight fluctuated from about 0.8 to about 1.3 grams. They continued to be minted in [[East Anglia]] under [[Beonna]] and in [[Northumbria]] as late as the mid-9th century.

The first Carolingian-style pennies were introduced by [[Kings of Mercia|King]] [[Offa of Mercia]] ({{abbr|r.|reigned}} 757–796), modeled on Pepin's system. His first series was {{frac|240}} of the [[Saxon pound]] of {{nowrap|5400 [[grain (unit)|grains]]}} {{nowrap|(350 grams)}}, giving a [[pennyweight]] of about {{nowrap|1.46 [[gram]]s.}} His queen [[Cynethryth]] also minted these coins under her own name.{{sfnp|Blackburn & al.|1986|p=277}} Near the end of his reign, Offa minted his coins in imitation of Charlemagne's reformed pennies. Offa's coins were imitated by [[Kingdom of East Anglia|East Anglia]], [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]], [[Kingdom of Wessex|Wessex]] and [[Northumbria]], as well as by two [[Archbishop of Canterbury|Archbishops of Canterbury]].{{sfnp|Blackburn & al.|1986|p=277}} As in the Frankish Empire,<ref name=chown/> all these pennies were notionally fractions of [[shilling]]s ({{lang|la|[[solidus (coin)|solidi]]}}; {{lang|fr|[[solidus (coin)#France|sol]]}}) and [[pound sterling|pounds]] ({{lang|la|[[libra (weight)|librae]]}}; {{lang|fr|[[French livre|livres]]}}) but during this period neither larger unit was minted. Instead, they functioned only as notional [[unit of account|units of account]].{{sfnp|Keary|2005|p=xxii}} (For instance, a "shilling" or "solidus" of grain was a measure equivalent to the amount of grain that 12 pennies could purchase.){{sfnp|Scott|1964|p=40}} English currency was notionally .925-fine [[sterling silver]] at the time of [[Henry II of England|Henry II]], but the weight and value of the silver penny steadily declined from 1300 onwards.

In 1257, [[Henry III of England|Henry III]] minted a [[gold penny]] which had the nominal value of 1 shilling 8 pence (i.e. 20 ''d.''). At first, the coin proved unpopular because it was overvalued for its weight; by 1265 it was so undervalued—the [[bullion]] value of its gold being worth 2 shillings (i.e. 24 ''d.'') by then—that the coins still in circulation were almost entirely melted down for the value of their gold. Only eight gold pennies are known to survive.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.coinandbullionpages.com/|title=Coin and Bullion Pages|contribution-url=http://www.coinandbullionpages.com/english-gold-coins/gold-penny.html|contribution=The Gold Penny|access-date=2016-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210202212/http://www.coinandbullionpages.com/|archive-date=2016-02-10|url-status=live}}.</ref> It was not until the reign of {{nowrap|[[Edward III of England|Edward III]]}} that the [[florin (English coin)|florin]] and [[noble (English coin)|noble]] established a common gold currency in England.

[[File:Medieval coin, Penny of Henry V -VI (FindID 505636).jpg|thumb|A worn medieval penny, probably dating from the reigns of Henry VI–VII, AD 1413–1461]]
The earliest [[history of the halfpenny|halfpenny]] and [[Farthing (English coin)|farthing]] (¼''d.'') found date from the reign of [[Henry III of England|Henry III]]. The need for small change was also sometimes met by simply cutting a full penny into halves or quarters. In 1527, [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] abolished the [[Tower pound]] of 5400 [[grain (unit)|grains]], replacing it with the [[Troy pound]] of 5760 grains (making a penny 5760/240 = 24 grains) and establishing a new [[pennyweight]] of 1.56 grams, although, confusingly, the penny coin by then weighed about 8 grains, and had never weighed as much as this 24 grains. The last silver pence for general circulation were minted during the reign of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] around 1660. Since then, they have only been coined for issue as [[Maundy money]], royal [[almsgiving|alms]] given to the elderly on [[Maundy Thursday]].