Making The "It's Not A Penny, It's A Cent" People Cringe

Ultimately its all about what makes the most "cents" not one who always says it right but I do like a nice and shiny penny....but wait thats..not right ok just one more time and ill put my Two Cents in and it wont cost anyone a single RED CENT... Does this make any sense?-errr CENTS

I hate calling them Pennies. But from time to time I make a mistake and call then pennies. When I was a kid, everyone said Penny.

This is similar to the issue with halves and dollar coins. Why do some people call a half a "fifty cent piece" or "half dollar"? Why not just a "half" like how most people call a quarter a "quarter" as opposed to a "twenty-five cent piece" or a "quarter dollar" And why do some people call a dollar coin a "dollar piece"? I guess its because quarters are more common than halves and dollar coins, however, I always say it the proper way, when I ask at the credit union for some, which is "halves" not "fifty cent pieces" or half dollars" and the tellers always know what I am talking about, although, sometimes they will respond "Fifty cent pieces?" (One thing I've always wondered about, was, what the reaction would be, if I asked if the credit union had any "wholes" when refering to "whole dollar coins" Never tried it, or heard of anyone trying it, but if I did, I'm sure the teller would be like )

That sounds like a pretty penny.

Not sure why this comes up so often. In the past there were many posts about the same thing. Once a list of songs that all said PENNY, not CENTS. Try singing Cents from Heaven. Just doesn't work. Ask about 30 million kids what those are and you'll always hear PENNIES. Or just ask the entire 300 million USA people total and you'll hear PENNIES. It is only a minority that says CENTS. The PENNIES would say that too if they could talk. Probably would have PENNY stamped on them if room enough.
And the same people that complain about that never complain about our dollar BILLS, Fin, saw buck, 2 bits, Nickels, etc. And no complaints about our Dimes that don't say 10 Cents but the Nickel does say 5 Cents.

I may need corrected about this but I think the term cent is relayed to Latin in a meaning of 100th. This also is where we get the term "per cent" = per centum = per 100.

In the original picture posted on this thread you can see where every denomination is given its value first (in cents), and then the name used by people to describe what the coin is called:



Since this is the case, technically we should have people discussing whether or not it is "right" to say I collect "Jefferson 5-cent pieces," rather than I collect "Jefferson Nickels."

And, BTW, I know growing up in the 60s-70s I heard older people using the terms "5 cent piece," "50 cent piece," and more rarely, "25 cent piece." The rest were called by their "common" (for lack of better term) names.

And then there was always the "5 and dime" store...

Because Americans used the word "penny" so often instead of "cent," some Korean collectors are calling the Lincoln Cent a "Lincoln 1 penny coin"!

Why is that funny? goes back to silver coins used in the USA. pieces of 8, because you cut the reale that was used as $1 worth of silver in the colonial US into 8 pieces and now you had bits. 8 bits to a bollar, making each 12.5 cents, so 2 bits is 25 cents.

thus "shave and a haircut two bits" meant it cost 25 cents for both at that time.

I even still say it today sometimes.