History of coins · 793
793: Charlemagne's silver penny
Charlemagne reforms the silver denier – and creates the pound-shilling-penny system that lasted in Britain until 1971.
Around 793, Charlemagne introduced a heavier, standardised silver penny, the denier, across his empire. The accounting system behind it – one pound equals 20 shillings equals 240 pennies – spread throughout Europe.
For centuries, silver pennies were almost the only coins in circulation in western Europe. The British kept the 240-penny pound until decimalisation in 1971. Carolingian deniers with Charlemagne's monogram are rare and popular with collectors of medieval coins.
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