Show cent name for penny the word cent is the official name of our I 1 cent piece penny being merely a colloquial name for the coin an act of congress passed august 8 1786 prescribed the word cents the highest copper piece of which shall be equal to the dollar on october 16 of the same year congress ordained that no foreign copper coin whatsoever shall after the first day of september 1787 be current within the united states of america this la law w removed the english penny which had circulated freely in this country until after the revolution but the name penny had been transferred to our cent in popular usage and has clung to it ever since |