Elmar's Virtual Computer Museum - the German Penny Symbol

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The German Penny Symbol in Unicode

In the year 1998 it caught my attention that in UNICODE, the computer code "for all languages and scripts" there were defined a lot of historical characters, but not the German Penny Symbol (

), that had been in use in Germany since the 15th century until at least 1975 after all !
Although I was born in the post-war era, I still had to learn this character/symbol in school - the German Penny Symbol disappeared not before the end of the Seventies from the price boards in the "Viktualienmarkt" (victuals market) in Munich:

= 5 pieces 20 pence
Therefore in 1998 I wrote an application to the UNICODE consortium to add this symbol into Unicode, and it got accepted. Code U+20B0 was assigned to the "German Penny Symbol" - someday this symbol will be found in the character fonts of future computer generations.

The German Penny Symbol derives from a "d" with appended tail
(an abbreviation of Latin "denarius") and it appears mostly in one of the following two shapes:

ancient shape:	together with Fraktur (German Gothic Print Scripture) and Sütterlin (German Gothic handwriting): (the base line is indicated in green color) this character got often - but not always - written with an "abbreviation point"
modern shape:	together with printed and handwritten Latin scripture: (the base line is indicated in green color) this variant of the symbol was always written without an "abbreviation point".

The German Penny Symbol always stands with its left part (that is the "d" contained) on the base line, and the tail on the right side
normally forms a descender. The upper part of the German Penny Symbol is either as high as a capital letter, or a little smaller.
See also the exception explained at reference [22] (below).

I recommend to use the modern variant of the German Penny Symbol (U+20B0) in modern Latin character fonts.

Partial magnifications of some of the collected evidences:

In the 15th Century:

[01]:

carved in wood (lower symbol)
(wooden calculation board, Basels/Swizzerland)

already this archaic variant:

consists of a "d"

plus tail

from volume II "Zahlschrift und Rechnen" (Numeric Script and
Calculation), page 154, in the book "Zahlwort und Ziffer"
(Numerals and Ciphers), K. Menninger, published by
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958, 1979 (3rd edition)

the upper symbol represents a German sz, which at that time
was used as symbol for "shilling" (German monetary unit).

[02]:

handwriting
(manuscript from 1426, Straubing/Bavaria)

= "xviiij " = 19 pence
for comparison a normal "d" in "lannd":

on page 51 in the booklet "Unsere Schrift" (Our Script),
published by Degener & Co., Neustadt/Aisch in Germany 1961

In the 16th Century:

[03]:

handwriting
(manuscript from 1572, Reichenbach/Bavaria)

= "25 ½ " = 25.5 pence

also here the difference between the German Penny Symbol
and the normal "d" is the attached tail

on page 95 in the booklet "Unsere Schrift" (Our Script),
published by Degener & Co., Neustadt/Aisch in Germany 1961

In the 19th Century:

[04]:

the German Penny Symbol in the description of the 1880
in New York for Germany produced pointer-typewriter "Hall"
(for Latin script)
for comparison the normal "d":

on the very same machine

[08]:

the German Penny Symbol in a newspaper advertisement
in German Gothic Script (typical evidence)

in an issue of the "Mindelheimer Zeitung" (Mindelheim News)
from 1896

[10]:

the German Penny Symbol on the keyboard of the
typewriter "The Chicago" 1898, U.S.A.
(for Latin Script)

(produced for the export to Germany)

In the 20th Century:

[11]:

original photo contrast enhanced

the German Penny Symbol on the keyboard of the
typewriter "Perko" 1912, Dresden/Germany
(for Latin Script)

[12]:

original photo contrast enhanced

the German Penny Symbol on the keyboard of the
typewriter "Triumph" 1918, Nuremberg/Germany
(for Latin Script)

[13]:

original photo contrast enhanced

the German Penny Symbol on the keyboard of the
typewriter "Adler" 1922, Frankfurt/Germany
(for Latin Script)

[15]:

original photo contrast enhanced

the German Penny Symbol on the keyboard of the
typewriter "Underwood" 1926, U.S.A.
(for Latin Script)

(produced for the export to Germany)

[16]:

bent for adjustment
on the control panel on the type spindle (2nd row from above)

the German Penny Symbol on the
pointer-typewriter "Mignon" 1930, Berlin/Germany
(for Latin script, capital letters only!)

on the control panel appears the normal shape of the Penny
Symbol, however on the type spindle - side-inverted - a variant
of the Penny Symbol with shortened descender can be seen:
the descender of the printed character is shortened, because this
machine was constructed for striking capital letters only!

On the type spindle above the Penny Symbol you can see the
German Pound Symbol (used only for weight), and below the
"cambered M", the German Mark Symbol at that time.

[19]:

typical evidence

"10 Stck. 75

" = 10 pieces at 75 pence

the German Penny Symbol in an advertisement
for "Spalt"-tablets (aspirin), in Latin script

in an issue of the periodical "Ratgeber" (Adviser) from 1954

(this periodical I used at that time to learn how to read)

Late, Erroneous References:

[20]:

in 1958 or 1979 ?

The German Penny Symbol shown is wrong, because
1. a German Gothic font is used instead of a Latin one.

From volume II "Zahlschrift und Rechnen" (Numeric Script and
Calculation), page 168, in the book "Zahlwort und Ziffer"
(Numerals and Ciphers), K. Menninger, published by
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958, 1979 (3rd edition)

Rethinking this sample I am not sure in which edition of the book this
font error entered since I have only the 3rd edition of 1979 in my hand ...

[21]:

in the year 1972

The German Penny Symbol shown is wrong, because
1. handwritten style instead of printed style is used,
2. the base line is not matching, the position slightly too high.

Though in elder printings of the German encyclopedia "Brockhaus"
this symbol was correctly represented, in the 1972 edition this symbol
was not any more readily available - so it got inserted photo-
mechanically in handwritten style instead of the proper printed one.

[22]:

in the year 1992

The German Penny Symbol shown is wrong, because
1. handwritten style instead of printed style is used,
2. its size is much too small,
3. it is superscripted instead of in normal position.

In the "Brockhaus" from 1992 (19th edition) the German Penny Symbol
is described even in a more misleading way (see left).

NB: Historic facts do not change, as distinct to the quality of the
Brockhaus editions.

Different from the erroneous citation on the left, in running text as the
one shown the Penny Symbol was always used in full size and grounded
with its left part (the ancient "d") on the baseline, and the tail on the right
side formed a descender.

Only if the Penny Symbol was positioned directly behind an emphasized
and therefore upsized number as e.g. in a price tag, it could look like
this: 10

. This is comparable to writing 10^$ instead of 10$.

In school I learned to write the Penny Symbol like this:

The proper size and positioning of the German Penny Symbol can be seen in sample [19] (above)
and also here in the picture of an old jewelry vending machine (sample [17] in my originally filed application):
See the explanation for the user telling him that he has to insert "twice 10 pence →" -
on the machine you can see a very cursive (italic) variant of the normal German Penny Symbol:

in the ad text however the official abbreviation used in those days can be seen: "Rpf." (= Reichspfennig)
(the German Penny Symbol had been used already long before that time):

► The German Penny Symbol is a fullsize symbol with descender, not a superscript symbol !

The photos of the typewriters and keyboards were taken by me in the German Typewriter Museum in Bayreuth in Bavaria/Germany
with the kind permission of the museum.

DISCLAIMER: All information in this website is given according to my best knowledge, but without guarantee.
This is a non-commercial fan website

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