new penny

1 5.3

A coin worth one hundredth of a pound first made in Britain in 1971

noun
/njuː ˈpɛni/

Archaic

: nuevo penique

The collector was thrilled to add a rare new penny from 1971 to his collection.

Examples

I found a shiny new penny on the street and decided to keep it as good luck.
He was excited to receive a new penny as part of his change after buying a candy bar.
I can't have Leo giving him a shiny new penny.

Miller's Crossing (1990)
How about I give you a nice shiny new penny and you go get us some toffees?

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Shiny new penny.

Miller's Crossing (1990)

Synonyms

penny

vsnew penny

513 1.0

A small coin worth one of 100 parts of a pound or dollar

is the British coin introduced in 1971 of that one hundredth value distinguishing earlier coins

Antonyms

old currency

1 7.4

Money that people no longer use to pay for things

Surface Forms

new penny singular

new pennies plural

Morphology

new + penny

The meaning is directly compositional: 'new' simply modifies 'penny' to indicate a modern or recently issued coin, so a learner who knows both words will infer it refers to a (modern) penny. The historical detail that it denotes the post‑1971 decimal coin is additional lexical knowledge but does not prevent a B1 learner from understanding the basic referent from the constituents.

Etymology

The noun new penny comes from Britain changing to a new money system in 1971. The first coins after the change had the words 'new penny' on them to show they were not the old pennies, so the name came to mean the new one-penny coin.