Pre-decimal: Silver Australia Australia, Oceania Coins: World Coins & Paper Money
One of the more interesting themes available to collectors of coins from the UK is pre-decimal silver coins. Before decimalization, the British pound was divided into 20 shillings. Each shilling was comprised of 12 pence, adding up to 240 pence to the pound. The symbol for the shilling was "s". This is not from the first letter of the word shilling, but from the Latin solidus. The symbol for the penny was "d", from the Latin denarius (the solidus and denarius were Roman coins). The small-value coins of the British Empire, pre-decimal, were minted in copper and silver.
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King Offa of Mercia introduced a pre-decimal silver penny of 1.3 to 1.5 grams pure silver, around the year 785. Pre-decimal silver coins of the same value relative to the pound were in circulation continuously until decimalization in 1971, at which time a new penny was introduced worth 2.4 times the value of the old coin. Offa's original pre-decimal silver coins were similar in size and weight to the continental deniers of the period.
The name penny comes from the Old English pennige, which has the same root as the German pfennig. Its abbreviation d. comes from the Roman denarius. It circulated until decimalization in 1971. Anglo-Saxon silver pennies were the currency used to pay protection money paid to the Vikings so that they would go away and not ravage the land. The history of pre-decimal silver coins is rich and diverse, and while older coins may be prohibitively expensive, more recent pre-decimal silver coins are within the means of most.
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