Groat (coin) Groat (coin) The groat is the traditional name of a long-defunct English and Irish silver coin worth four pence, and also a Scottish coin originally worth fourpence, with later issues being valued at eightpence and one shilling. The name has also been applied to any thick or large coin, such as the "Groschen" ("grosso"), a silver coin issued by Tyrol in 1271 and Venice in the 13th century, which was the first of this general size to circulate in the Holy Roman Empire and other parts of Europe. The immediate ancestor to the groat was the French "gros tournois" or
Penny (English coin) comes from the Old English "pennige" (pronounced , roughly "penny-yə"), sharing the same root as the German "pfennig". Its abbreviation d. comes from the Roman "denarius" and was used until decimalisation in 1971. Due to their ubiquity pennies have accumulated a great number of idioms to their name usually recognizing them for their common-ness and their miniscule value. These might include: Anglo-Saxon silver pennies were the currency used to pay the Danegeld, essentially protection money paid to the Vikings so that they would go away and not ravage the land. As an illustration of how heavy a burden the Danegeld