“ The penny of the present bronze coinage is of only about half the value of the old copper penny. The German pfennig was also originally a silver coin bearing the same relation to the German pound of silver as the English penny to its pound. And in the twelfth century it was made so broad, in imitation of the Byzantine coins, that it would no longer bear to be struck with a die on each side as before, but was struck on one side only. ”

“ In the beginning of the fourteenth century the mark of silver was anew divided into 60 parts or coins, which, to distinguish them from the old coins, were called grossi denarii, whence the term groschen. In the modern monetary system of Germany, the pfennig is a nickel coin, the hundredth of the mark, the latter being equal to a shilling or about $0.25. ”