What is a “Penny” or “Penny Weight” Nail? (2024)

FAQs

What is penny weight for nails? ›

The penny weight of a nail refers to the price for a hundred nails in 15th century England. The larger the nail, the more "pennies" required to purchase 100 of them. Today, the penny weight is commonly, and many times, incorrectly used to refer to the length of a nail.

THE PENNY SYSTEM

Understanding the penny nail requires a look back to England in the late Middle Ages. In the 1400s, the price of 120 nails was measured in pennies, or “pence.” Like today, larger nails sold for higher prices. The penny number is simply the price of 120 nails of a given length in historic England.

In the U.S., the length of nails is designated by “penny” abbreviated “d”. For example a twenty-penny nail (20d) has typically has a length of four inches.

Jewellers use the pennyweight in calculating the amount and cost of precious metals used in fabricating or casting jewellery. Similarly, dentists and dental labs still use the pennyweight as the measure of precious metals in dental restorations.

The coin is 0.75 inches (19.05 mm) in diameter and 0.0598 inches (1.52 mm) in thickness.

: a nail 1³/₈ inches long by 15¹/₂ gauge.

It was associated with nails when they were hand-forged, one at a time. Some say a hundred 3-1/2 inch nails would have cost 16 pennies and thus became known as 16-penny nails. Others say that the number and the “d” indicate that one 16d (3-1/2 inch) hand-forged nail cost 16 pennies.

The mint mark is the small letter that shows which Mint location made the coin. The two most common mint marks are the “P” for Philadelphia and “D” for Denver. The initials of the artist(s) who designed and sculpted the coin are also included in small letters. Other writing on a coin includes the date and inscriptions.

What does D stand for in nails? ›

In the United States, the length of a nail is designated by its penny size, written with a number and the abbreviation d for penny; for example, 10d for a ten-penny nail. A larger number indicates a longer nail, shown in the table below.

#2 x 6 in.

A 7-penny nail is 2¼ inches (5.715 cm) long.

“The “d” stands for penny, so 8d refers to an 8-penny nail, 16d to a 16-penny nail and so on. It's a way to indicate nail length, as you can see in the table below.

In Roman times, the penny term referred to the cost for 100 nails. For example, 100 8d nails cost 8 pennies. #

Eight-penny or 16-penny? The accepted rule of thumb is the nail length should be 21/2 times the thickness of the wood you are nailing through. Thus, for 1-inch-thick material, you would use an 8-penny nail and for 2-inch-thick material, you'd use a 16-penny nail.

A pennyweight (dwt) is a unit of mass equal to 24 grains, 1⁄20 of a troy ounce, 1⁄240 of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce and exactly 1.55517384 grams. It is abbreviated dwt, d standing for denarius – (an ancient Roman coin), and later used as the symbol of an old British penny (see £sd).