PFENNIG /FEN.ig or PFEN.ik/ n. an old monetary unit of Germany equal to one hundredth of a Deutsche Mark (pl. -S or -E)

Between 1920 and 1939, the city-state Danzig (now a region surrounding Gdansk in Poland) also used the pfennig as one hundredth of a GULDEN…

On stamps or other small objects, the pfennig was usually represented by the symbol Pf or ₰…

The latter symbol (₰) is an old German script equivalent of the modern ‘d’, which in turn comes from an old Roman coin called a DENARIUS (which you’ll be hearing more about soon enough!).

After more than a thousand years of use, the pfennnig was replaced, like many former currencies, by the euro in 2002. It was a sad day for word buffs.