When silver was everyday money | Canvas of Knowledge

A penny with a long life

The English penny existed as a small silver coin in Anglo-Saxon times. It survived the Norman Conquest and continued to be struck for circulation into the seventeenth century. This is a documented national example of silver's monetary role, rather than a claim that England invented silver money. A familiar denomination could endure even while the coins representing it changed considerably.

Counting money and weighing metal

Before decimalisation, twelve pennies made a shilling and twenty shillings made a pound: 240 pennies in total. Initially, shillings and pounds were units of account without corresponding coins. The Royal Mint Museum cautions that early pennies varied in weight, so 240 did not consistently weigh a pound. A monetary name and a physical quantity of silver were related, but were not permanently interchangeable.

Metal prices changed the coin

The silver penny gradually became smaller as silver became dearer. From 1660 it was struck for Royal Maundy rather than ordinary circulation. Much later, the First World War again put coinage under pressure. Rising silver prices helped prompt the Silver Coinage Act of 1920 and a reduction in the silver content of circulating coins. The economics of the metal could reshape the money made from it.

An everyday role ends

After the Second World War, Britain needed silver for industry and to repay silver borrowed from the United States. The Coinage Act of 1946 introduced cupro-nickel replacements, dated 1947, with issues to banks beginning that January. This ended silver's role in newly issued ordinary circulating coinage, while ceremonial silver pennies continued. The history is therefore a sequence of changing uses, not a single moment when all silver coins disappeared.

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Sources & further reading

Sources checked 14 November 2026. Reference organisations do not endorse this website. Price examples are hypothetical and educational.