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.
If you look at the picture you can
see the plural pfennig(e) on the coin.
also pfennigs
also the obsolete pfenning(s) in Chambers
Collins Dictionary has a a secondary reference to
one hundredth of an East German ostmark
Safe to say pfennig = penny?
Hi Edward,
PFENNIG and PENNY are two of many words across a range of languages that have a similar sound to them and come from the same source (another is the Finnish PENNI). I believe that source is a term used in the New Testament for the DENARIUS I mentioned in the article, but I would have to do a bit more research to confirm that. I’m not an expert at these things, but I did come across a mention of this in my research.