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Message:: [QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 1105213, member: 57463"]Exactly right!  See Ardatirion's post just above yours:O.E. pening, penig "penny," from P.Gmc. *panninggaz (cf. O.N. penningr, Swed. pänning, O.Fris. panning, M.Du. pennic, O.H.G. pfenning, Ger. Pfennig, dollar < Thaler.  Thal or Tal is "valley" in German, like the English words dell and dale.  The big silver coins came first from St. James Valley in Bohemia: Joachims Thal, usually written as one long word.  (Also the word shares roots with tell, tale, and tally: a cut.) What is not given is the root meanings of those penny words.  The root sense is "weight."  Modern words like ponder and pensive share the same root sense: to weigh out an idea. I could go on at length...  drachma comes from "handful."  Money comes from the temple of "Juno Moneta" where the Romans established a "mint."  (Same word).  But the root sense there is warning: admonish; monster, etc.  Because once upon a time, in the 200s BCE, some Celts or Gauls had penetrated Rome in the night, but, crossing the grounds of the Temple of Juno, they disturbed the geese.  The noise woke the guards.  So, the Romans then called that the temple of "Juno Moneta" Juno Who Warned Us. It is well known in cointalk that "pecuniary" comes from "pecu-" for both sheep or cow.  Cows were the preferred medium among many peoples, including the Germanics whose word as "das Vieh" pronounced like our English "fee" appropriately enough.  Yield, gold, and yellow, all point to grain and the color of grain. I could keep going...[/QUOTE]

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