1. Penny
The Book “ penny ” goes all the mode back to Old Englishpeningand has relatives in Germanic linguistic communication , such as German ( Pfennig ) , Swedish ( penning ) , and Icelandic ( peningur ) . The original British penny was worth 1/240th of a Syrian pound sterling ( now it is 1/100th of a pound ) . When the first United States one - cent coin was minted in 1793 , people just cover to use the British term to refer to it .
2. Nickel
The original U.S. five - cent coin was called a half dime bag ( or half disme ) and it was made out of silver . During the Civil War , flatware , and other metal , became scarce , and most coin went out of circulation . In 1866 , the five - cent objet d’art came back in an metal of Cu and nickel , but it was n’t a self-aggrandizing success . The silver half - dime was again minted until 1873 and keep to distribute after that , but in 1883 — after much lobbying by nickel - minelaying king Joseph Wharton — a unexampled nickel alloy five - cent coin was inaugurate . This time it went into wide circulation , and people called it the atomic number 28 . Wharton made out very well .
3. Dime
The dime bag was established by the Coinage Act in 1792 , but in the act it was called a “ disme . ” Disme ( pronounce dime ) was an old Christian Bible , from French , for tenth , which come from the Latindecima . The more common spelling even at that clock time was “ dime ” and that was what people used as shortly as it was mint .
4. Quarter
There ’s no mystery to the inspiration for this name . A quarter is a quarter of a dollar . So overall , we ’ve got two coins named for their dowery of a dollar bill ( one-fourth , dime ) , one for the material it ’s made from ( nickel ) , and one for old times ’ saki ( penny ) .
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