Dictionary

penny sterling en · NOUN

Etymology

From sterling silver, which the coin was originally minted from.

Meanings

1. (historical) A British coin worth  1⁄240 of a pound sterling, made of silver prior to 1797, and copper thereafter, Abbreviation: d.
   • Wat imagines he is asked for thirty pennies sterling (two and a half shillings), when he is really being asked for thirty pennies Scots (two and a half pennies sterling). 1996, James Hogg, Gillian Hughes, Tales of the Wars of Montrose, →ISBN, page 302:
   • There was a variety of silver coins in circulation, of which the most significant was the silver groat, worth four pennies sterling. 2011, Jonathan Sumption, Hundred Years War Vol 3: Divided Houses, →ISBN, page 876:
   • A price quoted as “10 pennies sterling” meant only that a buyer was expected to render a coin that was considered “worth” 10 pennies sterling. In such a case, payment might indeed be rendered in an actual penny sterling, but the relationship between the price (expressed by the money of account) and the bullion value of the penny was uncertain. 2010, Martha C. Howell, Commerce Before Capitalism in Europe, 1300-1600, →ISBN, page 17:
   • The Hong Kong Dollar is the local currency unit and has a fixed value of one shilling and three pennies sterling. 1964, Commerce & Industry - Volume 23, page 481:
   • The Semissis, or מםימם Mesimes, was the half of an assar, or the 192d part of a shekel: its weight was 2 barley corns, and its value equal to ּ146, or the 7th part nearly of a penny sterling. 1823, William Brown, David Jennings, Antiquities of the Jews carefully compiled from authentic sources: and Their Customs Illustrated:
2. (historical) A unit of weight amounting to 1/20 of a troy ounce.
   • Thirty-two Wheat COrns, taken in the midst of the Ear, weigheth one penny Sterling. Twenty-pence Sterling, maketh the Ounce Troy. 1727, Michael Dalton, The Country Justice: Containing the Practice, Duty and Power of the Justices of the Peace, As well in as out of their Sessions, page 363:
   • This order to stand in force and touching the fremen when ther is warre; and when peace shall be, then the waterbalifs to have of freemen eight pence sterling of every loader, soe ofte as every vessel of salt shall come into the haven uppon a fremans adventure, for plankage. 1891, Sir John Thomas Gilbert, Calendar of Ancient Records of Dublin:
   • Twenty four Grains made one Penny Sterling, 20 Penny weight one Ounce, and 12 Ounces, or 5660 Grains made a pound Sterling, consisting of 20 Shillings. 1676, Edward Chamberlayne, Angliae notitia ; or, the present state of England:

Forms