Pfennig

'pfennigs' or 'pfennige' (listenⓘ); symbol pf or ₰) or penny is a former German coin or note, which was an official currency from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002.

[a] The -ing- or -inc suffix was used, in addition to -ung, the formation of affiliation substantives and also appears in other coin denominations, for example in the schilling.

"[2] The word Pfennig is etymologically related to the English penny, the Swedish penning, which was also model for the Finnish penni (1860–2001), the Estonian penn (1918–1927), the Polish fenig (1917–1918), the Lithuanian word for money pinigai and the pfenig (fening) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1998–today).

The pfennig symbol has nearly fallen out of use since the 1950s, with the demise and eventual abolition of the Reichsmark with its Reichspfennig, as well as the abolition of Kurrent by the Nazis on 3 January 1941, thus making it increasingly cryptic as familiarity with Kurrent script has decreased since that time.

In the Old High German language, the denarius was already called the pfennig ("phenninc") at the time of Charlemagne.

The term paenig for the Roman denarius first appeared in England around 765, when King Offa had denarii struck out of silver based on the Carolingian model.

At that time and even partly up to modern times, it was the total weight of a certain number of similar pfennigs that had to be right for larger payments, a practice that tended to promote deviating exchange rates between smaller and larger coin denominations and which found its climax in the Kipper and Wipper era; for example, the terms Schockpfennig (= 60 pf), Schockgroschen or "pound sterling" (= 240 d).

Smaller denominations were created by cutting the coins in half or quarters, producing something called hacksilver, which was very easy to do with the one-sided thin hollow pfennigs or strubben, which were then referred to as bracteates from the 17th century.

The "change" that was often still required for price and quantity equalization by buyers and sellers on the city markets were small amounts of natural produce and goods that were included in the overall purchase process.

The black pfennigs undermined confidence in Austria's silver currency for a long time.

[4][5] For the successful introduction of the silver groschen currency, which replaced the regional pfennig, sufficient coins of lower denomination had to be available.

'lily penny') of the Free Imperial City Strasbourg and the Trier pfennigs, which were being minted as early as the beginning of the 14th century.

From the 15th century, a characteristic feature of the pfennig was its curved shape and a prominent circle of beads, which surrounded the coin image.

The last silver-containing 1 pfennig coins with the designation "Pfenig" were minted in Germany in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld from 1808 to 1811 and date stamped 1808 and are rare.

In the southern German states (Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria including the Palatinate, Saxony, and other smaller ones), the value of the Pfenni(n)g was fixed at 1/240 of a Gulden by the coinage act of 1506 and that remained in force until 1871.

The half-pfennig (Heller) was the only coin of the Gulden period that remained officially valid after the introduction of the imperial currency (because of the beer tax in Bavaria).

In some southern German states, the term Heller was a synonym for the pfennig (e.g. in the city of Frankfurt and in the Duchy of Nassau).

This partition was retained through all German currencies (including the Rentenpfennig, the Reichspfennig, and the pfennig of the Deutsche Mark) until 2001.