Penny Napoleonic Wars prompted the use of base metals in 1797. Despite the decimalization of currencies in the United States and, later, throughout the British Commonwealth, the name remains in informal use. No penny is currently formally subdivided, although farthings (¼ d.), halfpennies, and half cents have previously been minted and the mill (1/10¢) remains in use as a unit of account in some contexts. "Penny" is first attested in a 1394 Scots text, a variant of Old English ', a development of numerous variations including ', ', and '. The etymology of the term "penny" is uncertain, although cognates are
Mace (unit) which is also a generic word for "money" in Mandarin Chinese. (The same Chinese character (kanji) was used for the Japanese "sen", the former unit equal to of a Japanese yen; the Korean "chŏn"(revised: jeon), the former unit equal to of a Korean won; and for the Vietnamese tiền, a currency used in late imperial Vietnam; although neither of these has ever been known as "mace" in English.) Mace (unit) A mace (; Hong Kong English usage: tsin; Southeast Asian English usage: chee) is a traditional Chinese measurement of weight in East Asia that was also used as a currency