Pfennig

History of the Pfennig

The name appears with the Moyen-âge: Charlemagne made strike silver coins in sum of money S, of a value of 1/240e of delivers; thereafter various monetary units will coexist so much so that the tradesmen will define a common subdivision of the various currencies, of which: the gross, the strong sum of money, delivers it, the taaler (unit being used for counting or measuring the weight).

This common division of the usual principal monetary units was called according to the areas penning , pending , pfanding or penny and using various multiples all founded on the initial value of the sum of money (or denarius in Latin, subdivisions or multiples being named by adding a Latin qualifier after this word), defined by its noble metal weight. Thus the sum of money was a unit of known reference allowing conversions of many European currencies, without however that it is necessary like principal currency. The constant need for the submultiple of the sum of money as reference explains the increasing use of the submultiple, the penning.

This explains the use of the abbreviation “D” for the British Penny until 1971, where 1 book being divided into 20 Shilling S them even divided into 12 pennies (or denarius ), which gave a submultiple of 240 pennies for the new one delivers English (or 288 pfennies for the sum of money extremely still of use in various Germanic countries).

Since 1873 and the introduction of the decimal system into all the old Germanic countries recently unified by powerful the Prussia to form first Reich of Germany (also named according to their new common language), the name germanized Pfennig is essential and it was worth a hundredth of Mark , the new common monetary unit whose Pfennig becomes a submultiple (and who will remain it in the various denominations of the German mark until the deutschemark).

Since the Inflation of the beginning of the year 1920 and until the adoption of the euro, the German postage stamps carried a facial value made out in pfennig, even if it were equal or higher than one mark.

Before 1945, the subdivision of the Reichsmark, the pfennig, was often shortened by the monetary symbol (Unicode U+20B0, is 8368 into decimal), formed by the simplified binding of the small Latin letters PF (in an old style of writing of German tradition).

This monetary unit and its symbol disappeared in Germany in 2002, with the introduction of the Euro.

Into Bosnia-Herzégovine, the marka or convertible mark, currency inspired of the German mark, is divided into feninga .

See too

Penny
U+20B0 signal pfennig

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