Every day we utter hundreds and thousands of different words. But we do not often think about the present, original meaning and history of their origin. But in vain! Each word has its own fascinating and interesting past. Here, for example, is the name of paper notes and coins that we all use almost every day. We pay them in stores, vehicles, in the market. This article will focus on money! More specifically about their "past": we will consider the origin of the word "penny", what were the varieties of this coin. We also study the basic theories of its appearance.
The history of the origin of the word "penny"
Clearly, no one can say for sure where this seemingly simple word came from! Not a single historian or etymologist.
But meanwhile, this is the oldest bargaining chip that was in Russia. A penny more than three hundred years old is a very respectable age. This word was minted on a coin in 1704. And since then there have been a lot of varieties of it: a penny of tsarist Russia, Elizabethan or Soviet.
So what is the origin of the word "penny"? There are four versions, four theories about which etymologists are still arguing among themselves.
But first things first.
Version one
During the time of the Golden Horde, in 1414, Han Kepek lived and ruled. He decided to carry out a monetary reform, as a result of which a new monetary unit was introduced. According to the new rules, coins whose mass is more than 8 grams were called dinars, and with a smaller mass - dirhams.
Very soon people began to call the silver dinars of the khan cap. The Russian princes, in the Mongolian manner, began to call their own coinage caps.
Second version
In 1535, Elena Glinskaya (mother of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible) decided to eliminate the princes' right to mint coins. The objective of this reform was to unify money circulation in Russia and introduce a unified monetary system that would include only rubles and kopecks. All the rest, foreign and variegated princely coins, were ordered to be remelted.
After that, the minting of "new" coins began. When Elena Glinsky was particularly popular, small silver coins with a small mass, on the obverse of which a horseman with a spear was depicted. Perhaps this is precisely the reason why the word “penny” came from the word “spear”. After all, there were once in Moscow coins depicting a warrior with a saber - saber-fencers, who got their name from the word "saber".
As a rider on a penny, according to some sources, the creators meant the king, since on the obverse of the coin he is in the crown. According to others, this is Prince Vasily. According to third sources, this is George the Victorious, who hit the Snake.
Third version
There is other information about the origin of the word "penny". The famous Russian writer and ethnographer, Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl, in his explanatory dictionary, indicates that the word "penny" is a derivative of the word "save."
But this theory meets with many objections and a logical question: why then wasn’t all the money in Russia called penny?
Fourth version
It belongs to the Orientalists. Once upon a time, in the time of Timur, there was a Turkic coin - kepak, on the obverse of which the lion's head was struck. The image was blurry, and the lion looked more like a dog.
Perhaps the origin of the word "penny" is associated with this story. Indeed, the Turkic word "kepak" is translated as "dog".
With the origin of the word "penny" figured out. Now I would like to talk about the varieties of this bargaining chip, which was found on Russian soil at different times, under different rulers.
Let's talk about them.
Penny Peter the Great
After the financial crisis that overtook Russia at the end of the 17th century, the great sovereign decided to reorganize the country's monetary system. The reform of the decimal monetary system was introduced gradually, about 15 years.
Coins were issued that were less than a penny at face value - money, half, half half. Denomination for literate people was designated by the word, and for the illiterate people by special signs - dots and dashes.
Penny Elizabeth the First
It was released in 1726, became the largest penny in history and had a mass of 20.5 grams. The shape of this coin was square, and its size was 23 x 23 mm.
She was copper. The people called it "cloudy".
Kopek of Nicholas II
After the First World War, a crisis began in the country. There was an acute shortage of silver and copper. Therefore, the government decided to conduct a new monetary reform: the issue of "lite" money from paper. So there was a paper penny.
Kopek of the USSR
It was released in 1924 in a small edition, the material for its production was the coin blanks remaining from 1868-1917.
Soviet penny had a weight of 1 gram; 2, 3, 5 kopecks - 2, 3, 5 grams, respectively. Despite the low purchasing power, the cost of this coin was quite high. For example, if a metal ruble during coinage cost the state 16 kopecks, then one copper penny cost 8 kopecks.