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The pfennig (; . 'pfennigs' or 'pfennige' ; currency symbol pf or ₰) or penny is a former Germany coin or note, which was an official currency from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002. While a valuable coin during the Middle Ages, it lost its value through the years and was the minor coin of the Mark currencies in the German Reich, West Germany and East Germany, and the reunified Germany until the introduction of the euro. Pfennig was also the name of the subunit of the Danzig mark (1922–1923) and the Danzig gulden (1923–1939) in the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland).
The word Pfennig is etymologically related to the English penny, the Swedish penning, which was also model for the Finnish Finnish markka (1860–2001), the Estonian Estonian mark (1918–1927), the Polish fenig (1917–1918), the Lithuanian word for money pinigai and the pfenig (fening) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1998–today). The /pf/ rather than /p/ in both pronunciation and spelling is a result of the High German consonant shift or second Germanic sound shift which affected the High German dialects of what is now southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria. High German (and to some extent Central German) dialects form the basis for modern Standard German.
There were also "light pfennigs" ( leichte Pfennige), "good pfennigs" ( gute Pfennige) or "custom pfennigs" ( ), which had this name on the coin. Some types of pfennig were given special names in the vernacular, such as the Erfurt "coffin pfennig" ( Sargpfennig).
The pfennig symbol has nearly fallen out of use since the 1950s, with the demise and eventual abolition of the Reichsmark with its Reichspfennig, as well as the abolition of Kurrent by the Nazism on 3 January 1941, thus making it increasingly cryptic as familiarity with Kurrent script has decreased since that time. The symbol is encoded in Unicode at .
Unicode has , a square combination of ペニヒ (), Japanese for "pfennig", for compatibility with earlier Japanese character sets.
From the 8th to the 13th century, the pfennig (or denarius) consisted of high-quality silver, and was the only denomination in circulation, other units being used purely as arithmetic units,Helmut Kahnt, Bernd Knorr (1986). Old measures, coins and weights. A lexicon (licence ed.). Leipzig: Bibliographic Institute. Mannheim/Vienna/Zurich 1987. . p. 394. and it thus had a high purchasing power. As a result, this era is also called the Pfennigzeit ("pfennig era") in numismatics. Only very rarely were half-pfennigs minted, which were also known as Obolus or scherf.
Around 1200, the pfennig was the largest and only German silver denomination, apart from imported foreign gold and silver coins. Smaller denominations were created by cutting the coins in half or quarters, producing something called hacksilver, which was very easy to do with the one-sided thin hollow pfennigs or strubben, which were then referred to as from the 17th century. The "change" that was often still required for price and quantity equalization by buyers and sellers on the city markets were small amounts of natural produce and goods that were included in the overall purchase process.
Around 1200, the different mint lords of the Holy Roman Empire minted their to very different standards in terms of gross weight and , because the German kingdom handed over minting rights or did not enforce them as a uniform imperial standard consistently. As a result, many regional pfennigs with different exchange rates arose over time. Somes coins had a black tint due to the large addition of copper, and so a distinction was made between white pfennigs (Wißpennig, Albus, Silberpfennig) and black pfennigs (Kupferpfennig = "copper pfennig"). A well-known example is the Haller Pfennig, which was later legally defined as a heller or haller in subsequent imperial coinage regulations as a separate denomination valued at two to a pfennig until the 19th century e.g. in Bavaria. Even the early hellers (Händleinheller) had a noticeable addition of copper, so that the heller very quickly became the first German "pure" copper coin.
The pfennigs of the Schinderling period, the black pfennigs, were minted from 1457 mainly in southern Germany, especially in Austria and Bavaria, with almost no silver. The so-called Böse Halser ("Evil Halser") of this time essentially consisted of a copper-tin alloy. The period of the so-called Schinderling ended with the phasing out of the 5-lot pfennigs in 1460. The black pfennigs undermined confidence in Austria's silver currency for a long time.Helmut Friedl (2003). Die Münzen der Landgrafen von Leuchtenberg und Grafen von Hals. Regenstauf. p. 12.Heinz Fengler, Gerd Gierow, Willy Unger (1976). transpress-Lexikon Numismatik. Berlin. p. 343.
For the successful introduction of the silver groschen currency, which replaced the regional pfennig, sufficient coins of lower denomination had to be available. The silver-rich Saxon dukes, for example, had hollow pfennigs and hollow hellers minted at Gotha and Langensalza to prescribed coinage ordinances. However, the constant reduction in the silver content of the groschen meant that new ordinances to reduce the silver content of the pfennigs that the cities sometimes minted themselves.
The Schüsselpfennig ("bowl pfennig") minted from 1374 to the 18th century is a concave pfennig, stamped on one side only, that was minted from 1374 onwards, and was so called due to its minting technique. It was created by stamping using one upper die only onto a larger planchet. As a result, the rim of the coin was pressed upwards into the shape of a bowl or plate.Helmut Kahnt (2005). Das große Münzlexikon von A bis Z. Regenstauf: Battenberg Gietl. p. 429.
The forerunners of the Schüsselpfennig were the one-sided silver Engelpfennigs () and Lilienpfennig () of the Free Imperial City Strasbourg and the Trier pfennigs, which were being minted as early as the beginning of the 14th century.Helmut Kahnt (2005). Das große Münzlexikon von A bis Z. Regenstauf: Battenberg Gietl. p. 429. They are so-called ewiger Pfennige ("eternal pfennigs"), since unlike most , they did not have to be exchanged regularly for a fee.
The so-called Palatine Weckeler, named after its depiction of a lozenged shield or heraldic lozenge (), was minted from about 1390. From the 15th century, a characteristic feature of the pfennig was its curved shape and a prominent circle of beads, which surrounded the coin image. The pearl circle does not occur in the later Schüsselpfennig minted from the 16th to the 18th century."Weckler". In Helmut Kahnt (2005). Das große Münzlexikon von A bis Z. Regenstauf: Battenberg Gietl. p. 519.
The pfennigs concerned were usually the coins from the Freiberg state mint.
Some renowned coins made of copper are the Häller or Haller pfennig of Schwäbisch Hall, some centuries later called Heller, and minted throughout the country, and the Kreuzer (from Kreuz, the cross minted on the coins), minted in Austria, Switzerland, and some regions of Upper Germany.
In the southern German states (Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria including the Palatinate, Saxony, and other smaller ones), the value of the Pfenni(n)g was fixed at 1/240 of a Gulden by the coinage act of 1506 and that remained in force until 1871. (1 Gulden = 60 Kreuzer, 1 Kreuzer = 4 Pfenning, 1 Pfenning = 2 Heller.) The half-pfennig (Heller) was the only coin of the Gulden period that remained officially valid after the introduction of the imperial currency (because of the beer tax in Bavaria).
In some southern German states, the term Heller was a synonym for the pfennig (e.g. in the city of Frankfurt and in the Duchy of Nassau). In Bavaria, the heller was half a penny.
The gold.mark, introduced by the German Coinage Act of 1871, was the currency of the newly founded German Empire, divided into 100 pfennigs. This partition was retained through all German currencies (including the Rentenmark]], the Reichsmark]], and the pfennig of the Deutsche Mark) until 2001.
The last West German one- and two-pfennig coins were steel with a copper coating. The five- and ten-pfennig coins were steel with a brass coating. The latter was called a Groschen, while the five-pfennig coin, half a groschen, was regionally (east of the river Elbe) also referred to as the Sechser (), deriving from the former duodecimal division of the groschen. All four coins had their value imprinted on the obverse and an oak tree on the reverse.
The coins of the East German mark were made of aluminium, except for the 20 pfennig coin, which was made of an aluminium copper alloy.
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