Penny (United States coin) in the context of "United States Department of the Treasury"

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⭐ Core Definition: Penny (United States coin)

The penny, officially known as the cent, is a coin in the United States representing one-hundredth of a dollar. It has been the lowest face-value physical unit of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent in 1857.

The U.S. Mint's official name for the coin is "cent" and the U.S. Treasury's official name is "one cent piece". The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, which occupies a similar place in the British system. Pennies is the plural form (not to be confused with pence, which refers to the unit of currency).

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Penny (United States coin) in the context of Cent (currency)

The cent is a monetary unit of many national currencies that equals a hundredth (1100) of the basic monetary unit. The word derives from the Latin centum, 'hundred'.

The cent sign is commonly a simple minuscule (lower case) letter c. In North America, the c is crossed by a diagonal or vertical stroke (depending on typeface), yielding the character ¢.

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Penny (United States coin) in the context of Potash

Potash (/ˈpɒtæʃ/ POT-ash) are mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. The term potash derives from pot ash, either plant ashes or wood ashes that were soaked in water in a pot, which was the primary means of manufacturing potash before the Industrial Era; the word potassium derives from the term potash.

In 2021, the worldwide production of potash exceeded 71.9 million tonnes (~45.4 million tonnes K2O equivalent), and Canada is the greatest producer of potash as fertilizer. Potassium was first derived in 1807 by electrolysis of caustic potash (potassium hydroxide).

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Penny (United States coin) in the context of Bauxite

Bauxite (/ˈbɔːkst/ ) is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH)), mixed with the two iron oxides goethite (FeO(OH)) and hematite (Fe2O3), the aluminium clay mineral kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) and small amounts of anatase (TiO2) and ilmenite (FeTiO3 or FeO·TiO2).Bauxite appears dull in luster and is reddish-brown, white, or tan.

In 1821, the French geologist Pierre Berthier discovered bauxite near the village of Les Baux in Provence, southern France.

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Penny (United States coin) in the context of Penny

A penny is a coin (pl.: pennies) or a unit of currency (pl.: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is the formal name of the British penny (abbr. p) and the de facto name of the American one-cent coin (abbr. ¢).

Penny is also the informal name of the cent unit of account in Canada, although the Canadian penny's production ended in 2012 and it was withdrawn from circulation in 2013.

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Penny (United States coin) in the context of West Point Mint

The West Point Mint is a U.S. Mint production and depository facility erected in 1937 near the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. As of July 2025, the facility held 54,067,331 fine troy ounces of gold (over $183 billion USD as of August, 2025). As of 2019, 54 million troy ounces represented 22% of the United States' gold reserves. The mint at West Point is second only to the gold reserves held in secure storage at Fort Knox. Originally, the West Point Mint was called the West Point Bullion Depository. At one point it had the highest concentration of silver of any U.S. mint facility, and for 12 years produced circulating Lincoln cents. It has since minted mostly commemorative coins and stored gold.

It gained official status as a branch of the United States Mint on March 31, 1988. Later that year it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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