History of money

When were pennies first used in Britain?

It was about AD 765 that Offa, King of Mercia, introduced the penny into England.

Pennies were the only coins in use in Britain for the next 500 years. There were a few halfpennies too, obtained by cutting the penny in half.

They really were halfpennies!

Pennies then were made of silver and after a while looked very worn and battered as people used to chip little bits off the edges, melt them down and make a small lump of silver which they could sell.

You may have heard of pieces-of-eight - the pirates' gold - but there are many coins, like the groat or the noble, which might sound strange to us now. It seems surprising to think that there was once a quarter-farting.

The gold noble struck in the royal (or noble) metal, depicted Edward III standing in a ship. It is thought that this design commemorated the naval battle of Sluys.

Since ancient Greek and Roman times coins were struck to commemorate important people, events or even buildings, like the Roman Colosseum.

Some modern examples are the crown-piece struck in 1951 to mark the Festival of Britain, and another in 1953 when Queen Elizabeth was crowned, showing the Queen on horseback.

The particular design, the kind of metal, give valuable information about why they were struck, the countries they came from, the kind of people who used the coins.