Where did "cent" come from?

Steve27

Colonials appear to be in half-penny/penny denominations, but after the revolution there is a switch to the cent. Was it derived from the French "centime" as a way of showing our dissatisfaction with everything British?

tjkillian

Cent has Latin roots meaning 1/100th. Our monetary system was the first to be based on the decimal system, e.g. cent, dime, dollar, eagle. The English system was far more complex, 4 farthings in a penny, 5 pennies in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound.

Tom

K6AZ

<< <i>Colonials appear to be in half-penny/penny denominations, but after the revolution there is a switch to the cent. Was it derived from the French "centime" as a way of showing our dissatisfaction with everything British? >>



Actually, it was the work of Thomas Jefferson. In 1790, the United States was still using the Pound Sterling. Thomas Jefferson was commissioned by Congress to come up with a uniform standard of Weights and Measures, this included coinage. If you have done any reading on him at all, you will know that the French had quite a bit of influence on him from his years as ambassador.

Here is his report presented to Congress on July 13, 1790. This was the beginning of the change to our own currency, which became complete with the act of 1792.

Weights and Measures

DAM

As I understand it, we do not have a coin called a "penny", it's a "cent". I remember reading about this some time back. I believe we took the name penny from English coinage. But I'm not sure about that. It's one of those things you read about and because it's not too important you don't remember all the details.

Regardless, I don't believe people will stop calling the coin a "penny".


Maybe someone else will chime in that knows.



Edited to change the words cent and penny around... thanks millineum!

millennium

We have a coin called a "cent" the English have the "penny"....Look on the back of our lincoln head cents...see where it says ONE CENT?..The word "Penny", is a term we took from the english, a slang so to speak for our ONE CENT coin.....

DAM

millennium,

Thanks for straightening me out. After I read your response I saw I had gotten the words cent and penny mixed up.

Looks like I'll have to do some editing here.

kingmatt

12 pennies to a shilling. 6 pennies to a sixpence, 2 sixpence to a shilling. Where does the word "shill" come from?

jeffnpcb

You can look up shill and it can forward you to shill bidding on eBay and other fraudulent auction notices!{merriam-webster online}
Shilling is 1/20th of a pound sterling!
Thank God we went to the decimal system because British Standard measures would definitely mess me up! Work as Marine Technician and nothing is worse than trying to work on an English engine system that used British Standard!

Steve27

"Shill" has no relation to "shilling" but a "bob" is a shilling.

flaminio

<< <i>a "bob" is a shilling. >>



What?! I've never shilled in my life!

Flash

I thought "BOB" stood for "Battery Operated Boyfriend".