A one-cent coin from the United States, known colloquially as a 'penny'.

A variety of the low-value coins, including an (historical) Irish 2 pence piece and many United States pennies

A silver copy of the rare and valuable 1930 Australian penny

Coin of Eric Bloodaxe. The legend reads "ERIC REX" (King Eric).

A penny is a coin (pl. pennies) or a type of currency (pl. pence) used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system.

Etymology[link]

Old English versions of the word penny are penig, pening, penning and pending; the word appears in German as Pfennig, in Dutch and Swedish (often shortened to peng) as penning, and in West Frisian as peinje or penje. In Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish, the most common words for money are pengar, penger and penge respectively. These words are thought by some to have common roots with the English word "pawn", German Pfand, and Dutch pand, words which mean "a pledge or token".^[1]

Origin and history of development[link]

The silver penny of medieval Europe was modeled on similar small silver coins from antiquity: the Greek drachma and Roman Denarius. There are also archeology exibitions that show traces of pennies in Sweden and Norway. Researchers believe that this might be the result of Viking influence in northern Europe.^{[citation needed]}

When Britain was under Roman rule, most of Britain used the coin-based monetary system that was used by the Roman Empire, but their system of coinage soon changed after the Romans left. As the invading Anglo-Saxons began to settle and establish their own kingdoms, some started to make gold coins based on the old Roman designs or designs copied from the coins used in the Frankish kingdoms. Their monetary system had several serious flaws: first, gold was so valuable, that even the smallest coins were very valuable, thus, these gold coins would only be used in large transactions. Further, gold was very rare, and this rarity prevented such coins from being common enough to use for even large transactions.

Between the years 641 and 670 AD, there seems to have been a movement by the Anglo-Saxons to use less pure gold in coins. This made the coins appear paler, decreased their value, and may have increased the number that could be made, but it still did not solve the problems of value and scarcity of coins made mostly of gold.

Sceattas[link]

Around the year 680 a new type of small silver coin appeared which some have identified as "sceattas" or "sceat".^{[citation needed]} Others suggest that sceatta was a specific measurement of a precious metal.

[edit] First pennies

Through the end of the 7th century, no Anglo-Saxon coins had been minted in any metal besides gold.

In Northumbria, pennies made of silver were being minted in the name of Bishop Eadbert (consecrated between 772 and 782, died between 787 and 789), some in the name of his brother Archbishop Egbert (the shilling is one of the oldest of English coins, preceding the penny).^[2]

Pepin the Short, in about 735, minted the novus denarius. The novus denarius was based on the denarius and the penny was based on the novus denarius.^[3] He declared that 240 pennies or pfennigs should be minted from one Carolingian pound, approximately 326 grams (11.5 oz), of silver, so a single coin contained about 1.36 grams (0.048 oz) of silver. (As of December 2011, this would cost about £0.98).

Circa 790 Charlemagne instituted a major monetary reform, introducing a new silver penny with a smaller diameter but greater mass. Surviving examples of this penny have an average mass of 1.70 gram (although some experts estimate the ideal theoretical mass at 1.76 gram). The purity is variously given as 0.95 or 0.96.^[4][5][6]

The penny was introduced into England by King Offa, the king of Mercia (from 757 until his death in July 796), using as a model a coin first struck by Pepin the Short. King Offa minted a penny made of silver which weighed 22¹⁄₂ grains or 240 pennies weighing one Saxon pound (or Tower pound—equal to 5,400 grains—as it was afterwards called), hence the term pennyweight.

The coinage of Offa's lifetime falls essentially into two phases, one of the light pennies of medium flan comparable to those of the reign of Pepin and the first decades of that of Charlemagne in France, and another of heavier pennies struck on larger flans that date from Offa's last years and correspond in size to Charlemagne's novus denarius introduced in 793/4. But the sceat fabric survived in East Anglia under Beonna and until the mid 9th century in Northumbria, while the new-style coinages were not merely those of Offa, but were stuck also by king of East Anglia, Kent, and Wessex, by two archbishops of Canterbury, and even in the name of Offa's queen, Cynethryth.^[7]

Henry III in 1257 minted a gold penny which had the value of twenty silver pence. The weight and value of the silver penny steadily declined from 1300 onwards.

The penny, with a few exceptions, was the only coin issued in England until the introduction of the gold florin by Edward III in December of 1343.

In 1527 the Tower pound of 5,400 grains was abolished and replaced by the Troy pound of 5,760 grains.

Halfpence and farthings became a regular part of the coinage at that time, money which was created by cutting pennies to halves and quarters for trade purposes, a practice said to have originated in the reign of Æthelred II.

The last coinage of silver pence for general circulation was in the reign of Charles II. Since then silver pence have only been coined for issue as royal alms on Maundy Thursdays.

First use of copper[link]

Pennies were made of copper in the United States of America as early as 1793 (Chain Cent).^[8]

The penny that was brought to the Cape Colony was a large coin—41 mm in diameter, 5 mm thick and 2 oz (57 g). On it was Britannia with a trident in her hand. The English called this coin the Cartwheel penny due to its large size and raised rim,^[9] but the Capetonians referred to it as the Devil's Penny as they assumed that only the Devil used a trident.^[10] The coins were very unpopular due to their large weight and size.^[11]

The first copper coins that Boulton minted for the British Government are known as 'cartwheels', because of their large size and raised rims. The Soho Mint struck 500 short tons (450 t) of these penny and twopenny pieces in 1797, and issued further copper coins for the Government in 1799, 1806 and 1807. All together the Mint produced over £600,000 worth of copper official English coinage as well as separate copper coins for Ireland and the Isle of Man.

On 6 June 1825 Sir Charles Somerset issued a proclamation that only British Sterling would be legal tender in the Cape. The new British coins (which were introduced in England in 1816), among them being the shilling, six pence of silver, the penny, half penny and quarter penny in copper, were introduced to the Cape. Later two shilling, four penny and three penny coins were added to the coinage. The size and denomination of the 1816 British coins, with the exception of the four-penny coins, were used in South Africa until 1960.^[10]

Use of bronze[link]

In 1860 in Britain bronze pennies were introduced in place of copper ones, though they were not entirely made of bronze; instead it was an alloy containing 95 parts of copper, 4 of tin, and 1 of zinc. The weight was also reduced: 1 lb of bronze was coined into 48 pennies, versus 1 lb of copper which was coined into 24 pennies.^[3][12][13]

Value[link]

U.S. pennies

The penny is among the lowest denomination of coins in circulation.

• ¹⁄₁₀₀ of the British pound sterling (see British one penny coin), the Manx pound, the former Irish pound, the Gibraltar pound, the Jersey Pound, the Guernsey Pound, the Saint Helena pound, the Falkland Islands pound, or a coin with that value: see History of the English penny.
• ¹⁄₂₄₀ of the British pound sterling or Irish pound before decimalisation on 15 February 1971, of the Pound Scots prior to 1707, and also the pre-decimalisation currencies of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (¹⁄₁₂ of the shilling), or a coin of that value.
• A common colloquial name for the one-cent coin in the United States and in Canada, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of the dollar: see Penny (U.S. coin), Penny (Canadian coin).

In addition, variants of the word penny, with which they share a common root, are or were the names of certain units of currency in non-English-speaking countries:

• A fening is ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark
• A Pfennig was ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a German Mark and is sometimes still used by Germans as the name for the 1c coin of the Euro
• A penni was ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a Finnish markka

In the United States and Canada, "penny" is normally used to refer to a "cent." Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, the plural of "penny" is "pence" when referring to a quantity of money and "pennies" when referring to a number of coins.^[14] Thus a coin worth five times as much as one penny is worth five pence, but "five pennies" means five coins, each of which is a penny.

When dealing with British or Irish (pound) money, amounts of the decimal "new pence" less than £1 may be suffixed with "p", as in 2p, 5p, 26p, 72p. Pre-1971 amounts of less than 1/- (one shilling) were denoted with a "d" which derived from the term "denarius", as in 2d, 6d, 10d.

Irish pound decimal coinage only used "p" to designate units (possibly as this sufficed for both the English word "pence", and Irish form "pingin").

Criticism[link]

Handling and counting penny coins makes transaction costs that may be higher than a penny. It has been claimed that for micropayments the mental arithmetic costs more than the penny. Australia and New Zealand now use 5¢ and 10¢, respectively, as their lowest denomination^[15], with Canada set to follow suit as per the most recent Federal budget.^[16]

Changes in the price of metal commodity, combined with the continual debasement of paper currencies, causes the metal value of pennies to exceed their face value.^[17][18] Several nations have stopped minting equivalent value coins, and efforts have been made to end the routine use of pennies in several countries, including Canada and the United States.^[19] In the UK, since 1992, one- and two-penny coins have been made from copper-plated steel (making them magnetic) instead of bronze.

Idioms[link]

To "spend a penny" in British idiom means to urinate. The etymology of the phrase is literal; some public toilets used to be coin-operated, with a pre-decimal penny being the charge levied. The first recorded charge of a penny for use of a toilet was at the The Great Exhibition of 1851. Eventually, around the same time as the introduction of decimal coinage, British Rail gradually introduced better public toilets with the name Superloo and the much higher charge of 6d (2¹⁄₂p).^[20]

Finding a penny is sometimes considered lucky and gives rise to the saying, "Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck." This may be a corruption of "See a pin and pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck" and similar verses, as quoted in The Frank C. Brown collection of North Carolina folklore and other places.

It is also believed that one may get rid of bad luck by dropping a penny on the ground. The bad luck will go with the coin and be acquired by the next person to pick it up.

List of pennies[link]

• Australian penny
• British penny
  • British penny (pre-decimal)
• Canadian penny
• Irish penny
  • Irish penny (pre-decimal)
• U.S. penny

See also[link]

• Coins of the pound sterling
• Efforts to eliminate the penny in the United States
• History of the English penny (c. 600 – 1066)
• Legal Tender Modernization Act
• One cent (disambiguation)
• Penny sizes of nails
• Pennyweight
• Pfennig
• Smashed penny
• Prutah

References[link]

External links[link]

• The MegaPenny Project - A visualisation of what exponential numbers of pennies would look like.
• Silver Pennies - Pictures of English silver pennies from Anglo-Saxon times to the present.
• Copper Pennies - Pictures of English copper pennies from 1797 to 1860.

Hanni El Khatib is a singer-songwriter and musician based in Los Angeles.

Biography[link]

El Khatib is of Palestinian and Filipino descent. He grew up in San Francisco, where he became an avid skateboarder. He performed music on the side while working as creative director at the skateboard fashion label HUF.^[1]

In 2010 he released two singles on Innovative Leisure, a subsidiary of Stones Throw Records. His debut album, Will the Guns Come Out, was released on September 27, 2011. The album features eight original songs and three covers. His second album will be produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys.^[2]

He describes his songs as being for anyone who has ever been shot or hit by a train. His musical style includes elements of garage rock and blues.^[3][4]

During live performances, El Khatib is accompanied by drummer Nicky Fleming-Yaryan, a friend from high school. They performed at the South by Southwest festival in March 2011, and at Bonnaroo in June 2011. They have opened for Florence and the Machine.^[5]

His music has been used in television commercials for Captain Morgans, Nike^[6], and Nissan^[7], as well as the HBO series Hung and the Showtime series Californication.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Will the Guns Come Out (2011)

Singles[link]

• Dead Wrong (2010)
• Build. Destroy. Rebuild. (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

Penny Tai (born April 22, 1978 in Johor, Malaysia) is a Malaysian Chinese singer and songwriter in the Mandopop scene. Since her debut in 2000 she has released ten albums.

Biography[link]

Tai started song-writing at the age of 17, participating in the Halo Song-writing Contest ^[1] in Kuala Lumpur, a platform which also launched the career of fellow Malaysian singer, Fish Leong. In 1999 she was offered a contract by EMI Music (Taiwan) and moved to Taiwan pursue a career in singing and song-writing. She released her self-titled first album, Penny, in January 2000.

In 2006 she won Best Composer at the Golden Melody Awards for the song "Crazy Love" (title track to her 2005 album).^[2]

She formed the band "Buddha Jump" with "D-power" and released their first album, "Buddha Jump", on September 23, 2011.

Her most popular song to date internationally was the end theme for the Taiwanese drama "Meteor Garden" and "Meteor Garden 2" entitled Ni Yao De Ai (The Love You Want).

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

1. Penny (February 1, 2000)
2. How's That? (怎样) (January 22, 2001)
3. Just Sing It (April 13, 2002)
4. No Penn, No Gain (March 24, 2003)
5. So Penny (February 9, 2004) - selection plus new songs
6. Crazy Love (爱疯了) (March 31, 2005)
7. iPenny (October 6, 2006)
8. Forgive Me For Being The Girl I Am (原谅我就是这样的女生) (May 16, 2009)
9. <Rosa multiflora> Live Concert (野蔷薇)(September 16, 2010)
10. On the Way Home (回家路上) (November 1, 2011)

Other Albums[link]

1. Buddha Jump (佛跳牆) (September 23, 2011) with the Band "Buddha Jump"

References[link]

1. ^ Allmalaysia.com website profile
2. ^ "17th Golden Melody Awards Winner List (Chinese)". Government Information Office, Republic of Taiwan. http://info.gio.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=31075&ctNode=3750&mp=3. Retrieved 14 September 2010. 

• Penny Tai Baidu Baike

External links[link]

• Penny Tai official website

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This Malaysian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Louis Coleman
Kansas City Royals – No. 31
Pitcher
Born: (1986-04-04) April 4, 1986 (age 26) Greenwood, Mississippi
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
April 21, 2011 for the Kansas City Royals
Career statistics (through May 20, 2012)
Win–loss record	1-4
Earned run average	2.88
Strikeouts	73
WHIP	1.18
Teams
Kansas City Royals (2011–present)

Harold Louis Coleman (born April 4, 1986) is a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Kansas City Royals.

He was called up to the majors for the first time on April 21, 2011.^[1] That night, he pitched two scoreless innings against the Cleveland Indians in his major league debut.

On May 11, 2011, Coleman recorded his first Major League save by pitching a perfect 11th inning against the New York Yankees in Yankee Stadium.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

Baseball portal

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• LSU Tigers bio

This biographical article relating to an American baseball pitcher born in the 1980s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Damián Gutiérrez Hernández is a Mexican professional wrestler currently performing for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre under the ring name Damián el Terrible or simply El Terrible. He is the current CMLL World Heavyweight Champion.

Professional wrestling career[link]

Gutiérrez began wrestling in his native Monterrey and elsewhere for smaller independent promotions under a mask as El Engendro del Mal (The Bad Boy). In 2002, he debuted in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre without a mask as Damián El Terrible but later the "Damián" part of his name was dropped, possibly to alleviate any confusion with Damián 666. He was part of Shocker's first "University of 1000% Guapos," a group of undercarders competing for a spot in Shocker's Los Guapos group. El Terrible was chosen to be the third of the trio with Shocker and Máscara Mágica and the group feuded with Los Talibanes (Emilio Charles, Jr., Bestia Salvaje and Scorpio, Jr.), who were previously known as "Los Guapos". The two groups faced off in a cage match in August 2003 where Terrible and Bestia Salvaje were the last two left in the cage. Terrible pinned Salvaje, meaning Salvaje would have his head shaved. Over the winter, Los Guapos started feuding with Los Capos leading to Terrible teaming with Perro Aguayo, Jr. against Cien Caras and Máscara Año 2000 on CMLL's big March show in 2004 in a double hair vs hair match. Terrible and Aguayo won but Terrible started breaking off from Los Guapos.

He fully turned into a rudo (villain) and feuded with Máscara Mágica, taking his hair the following month in a main event match in Arena México. The natural feud with Shocker never really took off as expected and Terrible ended up joining Perro Aguayo's La Furia del Norte group. He formed a trio with Héctor Garza and Tarzan Boy that won the CMLL World Trios Championship by defeating titleholders Canek, Black Warrior and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. in November. Terrible joined Aguayo's new Los Perros del Mal group in early 2005 but suffered an orbital fracture while wrestling in Puerto Rico for the World Wrestling Council. He returned in September and immediately became involved in Los Perros' feud with Los Guerreros del Infierno.

On May 11, 2008, he and Damian 666 lost to The Hell Warriors (Animal and Power) in Mexico City in a match for the then recently vacated UWA World Tag Team Championship.^[2] In the fall of 2009 El Terrible and El Texano, Jr. became involved in a long running "Mexico vs. Japan" storyline that had been going on since the summer as they began working with the Japanese duo No Limit (Yujiro and Naito). On December 4, 2009 Terrible and Texano, Jr. defeated No Limit in a Luchas de Apuesta hair vs. hair match that was the main event of CMLL's Sin Salida show. After the match both members of No Limit had their heads shaved completely bald per Lucha libre traditions.^[3] On February 14, 2010 Terrible and Texano, Jr. travelled to Japan to challenge No Limit for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but were not able to defeat No Limit in their home country.^[4] In October and November 2010, Terrible and Texano, Jr. took part in New Japan's 2010 G1 Climax Tag League. After victories over Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano and No Limit, Terrible and Texano, Jr. finished fifth in their block and did not advance to the semifinals of the tournament.^[5][6][7] In April 2011, El Terrible and El Texano, Jr. left Los Hijos del Averno to form a new group with Rey Bucanero.^[8] The following month, the group was named La Fuerza TRT.^[9] On November 22, 2011, El Terrible's longtime tag team partner El Texano, Jr. left CMLL.^[10] A week later, Tiger was introduced as the new third member of La Fuerza TRT.^[11] On December 25, El Terrible and Rush survived a torneo cibernetico match used to determine the two competitors in a match for the vacant CMLL World Heavyweight Championship.^[12] On January 1, 2012, El Terrible defeated Rush to win the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship for the first time.^[13] The following April, El Terrible and Euforia won the 2012 Gran Alternativa.^[14]

In wrestling[link]

• Finishing moves

• Diving splash
• Over the shoulder back to belly piledriver^[15]
• La Terriblina (Belly to back inverted mat slam)^[16]

• Signature moves

• Lariat
• Powerbomb
• Suicide dive

• With El Texano, Jr.

• Finishing moves

• Giant swing (Terrible) / Running low-angle dropkick to the opponent's face (Texano) combination

• Entrance themes

• "Mein Teil" by Rammstein

Championships and accomplishments[link]

• Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre

• CMLL World Heavyweight Championship (1 time, current)^[13]
• CMLL World Trios Championship (1 time) - with Héctor Garza and Tarzan Boy^[17][18]
• Copa Dos Leyendas (2012)^[19]
• Copa Pachuca (2012) – with Rush^[20]
• CMLL Torneo Gran Alternativa (2012) – with Euforia^[14]
• Leyenda de Azul: 2008^[1][21]

• CMLL Guadalajara

• Occidente Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with El Texano, Jr.^[22]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him #199 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 2006

• Other titles

• Estado de México Trios Championship (1 time) - with El Hijo del Diablo and Bombero Infernal^[1]

Lucha de Apuesta record[link]

References[link]