Pennylands: more than just shilling and pence

The theme for Pennyland’s streets is coinage - appropriate given the name of the estate! I assume there was nothing accidental about the theme choice, of course. 

Pennyland is a grid square located on the side of the Grand Union Canal, on the north side of Milton Keynes. It was built in the early 1980s and I recently learned that this grid square was part of an experiment - the Pennyland Project - designed to learn more about the energy-saving of current (at the time) building regulations, vs a more demanding version. 

This experiment sounds fascinating as it was comprehensive, including even the layout of the houses before they were built to make the most of the solar energy. It also included control houses in Pennyland and in other Milton Keynes districts. The project was sponsored by the UK Department of Energy, Department of Environment and Milton Keynes Development Corporation, and using the technical expertise of the Open University Energy Research Group. I spent a very exciting hour poring through the final report on the project - made even more fascinating as the document was produced on a typewriter, with some graphs being done by hand. Different world!

As for the street theme of coinage, it may not seem very obvious with some of those street names - so here is the list of streets and what coin they are referring to, along with some interesting facts I could dig up. 

Angel: The angel was an English gold coin introduced by Edward IV in 1465. The name derived from its representation of the archangel Michael slaying a dragon. As it was considered a new issue of the noble, it was also called the angel-noble. The reverse is a ship with a cross in front of the mast. In the 16th century, this coin became more of a talisman as it was given to those touched for the king’s evil, or scrofula, in the belief that the king’s touch could cure. For this reason, it was produced up until the reign of Charles I, and small versions were struck by the later Stuarts and pretenders, but it was not again issued as legal tender. It was so iconic that pubs were named after it, including The Angel Inn in Islington which in turn gave its name to Angel tube station. There is also a Manx Angel which is a gold or silver bullion coin distributed by the Isle of Man and minted by private companies. It doesn’t have a face value but has the value of the content of the precious metal. 

Bodle: A bodle or boddle or bodwell, also known as a half groat or Turner was a Scottish copper coin, of less value than a bawbee, worth about one-sixth of an English penny, first issued under Charles II.

Broadpiece: The Broad was an English coin worth 20 shillings issued by the Commonwealth of England in 1656. It was a milled gold coin.

Carolus: There are several gold coins with this name, all named after different rules named Charles: most notably, a coin valued at 20 shillings (later 23) and used during the reign of Charles I of England.

Florin: The florin was a former coin of the Republic of Florence. However there are many other coins also called Florins, both modern and ancient. 

Leopard: The double florin or double leopard was an attempt in 1344 by English king Edward III to produce a gold coinage suitable for use in Europe as well as in England. One side of the coin shows the King enthroned beneath a canopy, with two leopards' heads at the sides (the leopard being the heraldic "lion" on the English coat of arms). The other side of the coin shows the Royal cross within a quatrefoil, a leopard in each spandrel.

Longcross: The long cross penny was introduced in 1247 to replace the short-cross penny which had been easy to clip and was now often underweight. This new penny made it more obvious when the coin had been clipped. Also, the long cross made it easy to cut the coin into halves or quarters for change.

Noble: The noble was the first English gold coin produced in quantity, having been preceded by the gold penny and the florin earlier in the reigns of King Henry III and King Edward III, which saw little circulation. The derivatives of the noble, the half noble and quarter noble, on the other hand, were produced in quantity and were very popular. The value of the coin was six shillings and eight pence which was equivalent to eighty old pence or one-third of a pound sterling. It has been named in several Shakespearean plays. 

Quadrans: The quadrans (literally meaning "a quarter") or teruncius ("three unciae") was a low-value Roman bronze coin worth one quarter of an as or assarius. The quadrans was issued from the beginning of cast bronze coins during the Roman Republic with three pellets representing three unciae as a mark of value. 

Shilling: A shilling was a coin worth one-twentieth of a pound sterling, or twelve pence. Prior to Decimal Day in 1971, there were 240 pence in one pound sterling. Twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound.

Skeats: A sceat (Old English: [ʃæɑ̯t], pl. sceattas) was a small, thick silver coin minted in England, Frisia and Jutland during the Anglo-Saxon period. Its name derives from Old English sceatt, meaning "wealth", "money", and "coin", which has been applied to these coins since the 17th century. It is likely, however, that the coins were more often known to contemporaries as "pennies", much like their successor silver coins.

Sovereign: The sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling. Struck from 1817 until the present time, it was originally a circulating coin accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery, especially rings called sovereign rings.

Staters Pound: A stater is an ancient coin used in various regions of Greece. The term is also used for similar coins, imitating Greek staters, minted elsewhere in ancient Europe. There exists a Celtic Stater too however this is a name given to them by modern researchers as the actual name of these coins is unknown.

Sterling: The sterling or pound sterling is the official currency of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and other overseas territories. It is subdivided into 100 pence. The pound sterling is the oldest currency in continuous use: a pound was a unit of account in Anglo-Saxon England, equal to 240 silver pence (the plural of penny) and equivalent to one pound weight of silver. It evolved into the modern British currency, the pound sterling. There are other nations that also use currencies called pound.