A silver coin stamped with the royal mark, the everyday currency of trade in markets and taverns. Smaller than the gold crown but more durable, the pence serves the merchant, farmer, and laborer equally.
It is not fine silver. The coin is struck from an alloy — “sterling” where the crown holds to its standard, though the baser metal mixed in varies from realm to realm and the proportion of silver varies with it. Between that alloy and the mint’s own charge for striking, a penny is worth a penny because the crown says so, and not because of the silver in it; the metal alone comes to slightly less. Coin from a realm known to debase its issue is weighed rather than counted, and discounted accordingly.