Penny: a small coin worth one cent.

In German class this morning, we learned the word for penny: Pfennig.  Clearly related to English, my students and I went off to find out where this word came from.

In Middle English, the word was peni.  In Old English, pening, and In Anglo-Saxon pending.  Beyond that, not much is known about the word.

Ironically, according to CoinNews.net, in 2022, it cost the U.S. governed 2.72 cents to manufacture one penny.  In other words, it not longer makes sense to give someone a penny for their their thoughts.  2.72 cents for your thoughts?

I did not grow up using pennies, since pennies are nonexistent on overseas military bases.  Cost too much to ship them over, I suppose.  Everything was simply rounded up to the nearest nickel, which incidentally costs 10.41 pennies to manufacture.

The name Penny is not related to the coin.  Penny is a shortened version of the Greek name Penelope.  You may remember Penelope as the famous wife of Odysseus.

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