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Message:: [QUOTE="Conder101, post: 991641, member: 66"]Maybe, but so did Shilling, Crown, farthing, etc.  But they didn't call anything a penny because there wasn't one (at least not a physical one)  So if you are going to call a cent by the name of a coin that doesn't match it's value any name would be just as good.  And i will admit that they would have been familiar with the term Pence from the British, which is possibly why New York used the term.  Although I still don't understand why they would either since it had no relationship to any British coin either.  But it still doesn't change the fact that the cent and new york penny were closer in value than the cent and any other readily available coin or money of account.  To me that very strongly argues that the cent became known as a penny because of the familiarity of people to the New York "coin" than anything else. I don't think the half penny was ever called a penny in colonial America.  All references I have seen to them refered to them either as half pennies, half pence, or simply as coppers.  (Now there's a thought, why weren't the 1 cent pieces known as "coppers"?) And in any case it doesn't change the fact they have probably been called Pennies since 1793 which is still the answer to the original question.[/QUOTE]