Penny reign of that the florin and noble established a common gold currency in England. The earliest halfpenny and farthing (¼d.) found date to the reign of Henry III. The need for small change was also sometimes met by simply cutting a full penny into halves or quarters. In 1527, Henry VIII abolished the Tower pound of 5400 grains, replacing it with the Troy pound of 5760 grains and establishing a new pennyweight of although, confusingly, the penny coin by then weighed about 8 grains, and had never weighed as much as this 24 grains. The last silver pence for general
Troy weight town of Troyes in France where English merchants traded at least as early as the early 9th century. The name "troy" is first attested in 1390, describing the weight of a platter, in an account of the travels in Europe of the Earl of Derby. Charles Moore Watson (1844–1916) proposes an alternative etymology: "The Assize of Weights and Measures" (also known as "Tractatus de Ponderibus et Mensuris"), one of the statutes of uncertain date from the reign of either Henry III or Edward I, thus before 1307, specifies "troni ponderacionem"—which the Public Record Commissioners translate as "troy weight". The word