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The British decimal one penny (1p) coin is a unit of currency and denomination of sterling coinage worth 1 ⁄ 100 of one pound.Its obverse featured the profile of Queen Elizabeth II since the coin's introduction on 15 February 1971, the day British currency was decimalised, until her death on 8 September 2022.
Sterling (ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. [3] The pound is the main unit of sterling, [4] [c] and the word pound is also used to refer to the British currency generally, [7] often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling. [4]
At the time of the 1702 London Mint Assay by Sir Isaac Newton, the silver content of British coinage was defined to be one troy ounce of sterling silver for 62 pence, or 502 mg per penny. Therefore, the value of the monetary pound sterling was equivalent to only 3.87 troy ounces (120 g) of sterling silver. This was the standard from 1601 to 1816.
Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system , under which the largest unit was a pound (£) divisible into 20 shillings (s), each of 12 pence (d). The pre-decimal penny was demonetised on 1 September 1971, just over six months after decimalisation, and replaced (in effect) by the decimal half new penny , with + 1 ...
The introduction of decimal currency caused a new casual usage to emerge, where any value in pence is spoken using the suffix pee: e.g. "twenty-three pee" or, in the early years, "two-and-a-half pee" rather than the previous "tuppence-ha'penny". Amounts over a pound are normally spoken thus: "five pounds forty".
Prior to decimalisation in 1971, there were 12 pence (written as 12d) in a shilling (written as 1s or 1/-) and 20 shillings in a pound, written as £1 (occasionally "L" was used instead of the pound sign, £). There were therefore 240 pence in a pound. For example, 2 pounds 14 shillings and 5 pence could have been written as £2 14s 5d or £2/14/5
The UK abandoned the old penny on Decimal Day, 15 February 1971, when one pound sterling became divided into 100 new pence. This was a change from the system used in the earlier wave of decimalisations in Australia, New Zealand , Rhodesia and South Africa , in which the pound was replaced with a new major currency called either the "dollar" or ...
The British decimal two pence coin (often shortened to 2p in writing and speech) is a denomination of sterling coinage equalling 2 ⁄ 100 of a pound.Since the coin's introduction on 15 February 1971, the year British currency was decimalised, its obverse has featured four profiles of Queen Elizabeth II. [1]