Did you know, Canada has never issued a penny?
Canadians (and Americans) have been referring to their one-cent pieces as pennies for as long as these coins have been issued. “Penny” is deeply engrained in our culture and language—much like “loonie” is for our dollar. But cents were never pennies. The true penny was originally an 8th century British silver coin that was a bit smaller (and much thinner) than our nickel. Valued at 1/240th of an English pound, 240 of them were minted from an actual pound of silver. Silver pennies were the basic denomination of the late Anglo-Saxon monetary system and continued in that role in England well into the 16th century—weathering every kind of economic disaster, including invasion and civil war.
The penny may have been England’s lowest denomination, but it wasn’t small change. In the 14th century, you could’ve bought a couple of chickens with just a penny. So, for a large part of the population, the silver penny was simply too valuable for most daily transactions. To make change, it was sometimes necessary, though illegal, to cut a penny in half, into quarters or even into smaller bits. Halfpennies and farthings (1/4 pennies) were introduced by the mint, but in later years this problem was better solved with copper tokens and coins—pieces most of us can better identify as pennies.
18th Century: The coming of copper
The biggest problem with any currency made of valuable metal is the constantly fluctuating market price of the metal itself. This means that a coin’s buying power could also fluctuate. Over the centuries, silver prices rose but generally parallel to the prices of most items—requiring only the occasional adjustment in the penny’s size. However, the 16th century saw significant shifts in the price of silver, making it increasingly difficult to continue issuing the silver penny.
And a great need still remained for smaller denominations, a need that wasn’t being met by the Royal Mint. When it did issue silver half pennies, so small were they that there was a constant risk of losing them. To address these issues, 17th century businesses and other organizations in the United Kingdom began issuing copper tokens that circulated in the economy as both advertising and small change. Popularly known as “coppers,” most of these tokens (many were restamped farthings) were worth half a penny or a quarter of a penny. As silver prices skyrocketed in the mid-18th century, the United Kingdom finally gave up on the silver penny, choosing to issue its first copper version in 1797.
At the same time, it outlawed the use of coppers.
