Why Are Nails Named Penny Nails?

The word penny is used to describe a measure of the size of nails. The term penny nails was used at least as early as the sixteenth century and until the twenty-first century. The symbol for the term penny nail is d. The symbol d. comes from the Latin word denarius. It is, in turn, derived from the French word denier. This is also the symbol for the monetary term penny. One British pound sterling is equivalent to approximately 240 pennies.

In the current usage a nail measuring 2d is about one inch long. Each 1d increase is equivalent to an increase of about one-fourth of an inch in length upto about 16d. The remaining sizes of nails, beginning with 20d, are all multiples of 10d. They all are about half an inch longer than the preceding size. It is not based on the cost of an individual nail in pennies

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