Pennyweight Troy weights were defined in such a way that the old Tower pound came out to exactly 5400 Troy grains (also known as barleycorns), the Tower pennyweight Troy grains (and thus approximately 1.46 grams). After 1527, the English pennyweight was the Troy pennyweight. of 24 Troy grains. Thus the Troy pound, ounce, and pennyweight, with their definitions given in terms of the Troy grain instead of in terms of the Tower grain, were 1/15 or 6.667% more than the Tower equivalents. The Troy pound and the pennyweight lost their official status in the United Kingdom in the Weights and Measures
Silver center cent of the new nation's coinage should be approximately equal to its face value. Some merchants would refuse to accept coins that did not meet this standard. For most denominations, bullion parity was achieved by producing the coins in a gold or silver alloy. However, the Coinage Act of 1792 specified that the cent was to consist of 11 pennyweight (264 grains or 17.1 g) of pure copper. Such a weight, needed to maintain intrinsic value, would have been too heavy for practical everyday use. U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson suggested an alternative: a coin made of an alloy that