Plural of Penny

[wwwww]

Do I have 100 pennies, or 100 pence?

Assuming we're talking about the individual coins rather than a quantity of money.

[JeffH]

Hi Walter,
That's not even ten shillings!

I think either is an acceptable plural for penny but common usage is;
•"Pennies" for multiple coins
•"Pence" for a sum of money (such as sixpence [coin, not six pennies])

Does that make sense?

So, if you have 100 one penny coins you have 100 pennies. If they are scarce years or extra high grades just send them to me and I will return a nice £1 note -that's 140% return to you. :yahoo:
If you have two 50p coins you have 100 pence.

Cheers,
Jeff

[ausjack]

Hummm that's a good one, I suppose if you were talking to an indiviual you'd use pennies as we don't really use the term pence but if your pom or talking stockmarket and the like then you'd probably use pence..I'm still going around in a circle..thanks a lot Walter :good:

I'd ask some one if they had 100 pennies or 10 deener or 10 shillings or 10 bob or 5 x 2bob or 5 florins..I think I got that right :winkextra:
Ya type to quick for me Jeff, try using one finger for me please

[Unicorn]

Apologies in advance .......

Jeff ....

Does that make sense?  

Or does that make cents .....  

sorry not the full quid today.

[ausjack]

there's my pound

[enworb]

I suppose it depends on how youre using it. If you were doing a sum of them to use in a transaction you would say "I have 100 pence". If you were commenting on how many coins you had in your pocket you would say "I have 100 pennies".

[Mister T]

I'm with pennies too, though I wonder if there is an official/correct usage in this case.
And I guess two halfpennies sounds better than two halfpence.

[robbiegal]

wot JeffH said -
dictionary

Noun [edit]
penny (plural pennies when referring to individual coins; (UK) pence when referring to an amount of money)


pence
noun British .  
a plural of penny; used in referring to a sum of money rather than to the coins themselves (often used in combination): sixpence; The fare was 15 pence.

[wwwww]

wot JeffH said -
dictionary

Noun [edit]
penny (plural pennies when referring to individual coins; (UK) pence when referring to an amount of money)


pence
noun British .  
a plural of penny; used in referring to a sum of money rather than to the coins themselves (often used in combination): sixpence; The fare was 15 pence.

That's what I've always thought, but the official mint reports refer to the coins in quantity as pence. Perhaps the usage has changed over the years.

[Goldseeker]

But didn't the Poms call their new currency New pence and pounds.   Before that it was pounds, shillings and pence.

Being an ex Pom, I tend to say penny - singular, pennies - plural.

[Sapyx]

Do I have 100 pennies, or 100 pence?

I believe the correct answer to this question is, "yes". :winkextra:

If you have 100 pennies (100 one penny coins) then you have 100 pence (amount of money) as well. If you took away three of the pennies and substituted a threepence for them, you would no longer have 100 pennies - but you would still have 100 pence. Thus, the plural form for the specific denomination of coin is "pennies".

"Penny" is a useful word in this sense of having two different plural forms meaning two different things. Most other currency names, such as "cent" do not have such a feature; saying "I have seventeen cents" is therefore ambiguous: do you have seventeen cents of money (perhaps composed of a 10, 5 and 2 cent coin), or do you have seventeen one-cent coins? To be clear, you need to add the extra words.

[JeffH]

Well done Sap. I wish I could have explained it so clearly.

Jeff

[wwwww]

Do I have 100 pennies, or 100 pence?

I believe the correct answer to this question is, "yes". :winkextra:

If you have 100 pennies (100 one penny coins) then you have 100 pence (amount of money) as well. If you took away three of the pennies and substituted a threepence for them, you would no longer have 100 pennies - but you would still have 100 pence. Thus, the plural form for the specific denomination of coin is "pennies".

"Penny" is a useful word in this sense of having two different plural forms meaning two different things. Most other currency names, such as "cent" do not have such a feature; saying "I have seventeen cents" is therefore ambiguous: do you have seventeen cents of money (perhaps composed of a 10, 5 and 2 cent coin), or do you have seventeen one-cent coins? To be clear, you need to add the extra words.

The reason I conclude that the mint is referring to the coins (rather than the quantity of money) when using the term 'pence' is because they use halfpence in such a form too, e.g. 1 halfpenny, 100 halfpence.

[interest]

If I had that I would be calling it, 8 shillings & 4 pence or 8 and 4.

Hang on,, if you got 100 girls all called Penny.
They would have to be called Penny's

But if you had 100 coins that were all the same denomination eg Penny.
Then they would have to be called a collective, which would be, Pennies.
You gotta love the English language.

[trout]

Sheep is another weird one:angel:
You can have 1 sheep or 1000 sheep no plural for these critters :laugh2:

back on subject.
If you are refering to the cost of something then it would be for example, 1 pound 7 shillings and 4 pence

If you are refering to a big handful of penny coins it would be a handful of pennies

:ok: