in commerce, an ancient English coin, which had formerly considerable currency, but is now generally dwindled into an imaginary money or money of account. Camden derives the word from the Latin pecunia, money. The ancient English penny, penig, or pening, was the first silver coin struck in England; nay, the only one current amongst our Saxon ancestors, as is agreed by Camden, Spelman, Hickes, and others. The penny was equal in weight to our threepence; five of them made one shilling, or scilling Saxon, and thirty a mark or mancuse, equal to 7s. 6d. Till the time of King Edward I. the penny was struck with a cross, so deeply indented in it that it might be easily broken and parted, on occasion, into two parts, which were thence called half-pennies; or into four, which were called fourthings or farthings. But that prince coined it without indenture, instead of which, he first struck round halfpence and farthings. He also reduced the weight of the penny to a standard, ordering that it should weigh thirty-two grains of wheat, taken out of the middle of the ear. This penny was called the penny sterling; and as twenty of these pence were to weigh an ounce, the penny thus became a weight as well as a coin. The penny sterling was long disused as a coin, and was scarcely known, except as a money of account, containing the twelfth part of a shilling; but latterly it has been introduced into the British current coin.