{
    "id": 1070912,
    "title": "The history of penny sweets",
    "slug": "the-history-of-penny-sweets",
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    "url": "https://sweeties.net/wiki/the-history-of-penny-sweets/",
    "modified": "2026-09-26T04:44:40+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Penny sweets come from the days of old money, when a penny bought a bag of Rainbow Drops. What a penny bought, and what happened after decimalisation.",
    "content_text": "Penny sweets are small sweets bought a few at a time, and the name is a leftover from old money. In Britain, a penny or even half of one could once buy a sweet treat.\nOld money\nBefore 1971, the pound was divided into 20 shillings of 12 pence each, 240 pence in all. The penny was written d, after the Roman denarius, and there were smaller coins still: the halfpenny, and the farthing, a quarter of a penny, which stopped being legal tender in 1961.\nWith coins that small, sweets could be very cheap. In 1851 the journalist Henry Mayhew counted about 200 street sellers of sweet stuff in London, selling rock, candies and hardbake by the halfpenny worth: see the history of the sweet shop\nWhat a penny bought\n1909. When the first British Woolworths opened in Liverpool, its sweets cost tuppence a quarter pound: see Woolworths pick and mix, the story1920s. Trebor introduced the Black Jack, an aniseed flavoured chew. The nostalgia site Do You Remember? recalls Black Jacks at four for a penny: see Black Jacks1930s. Swizzels sold Rainbow Drops loose, scooped into bags for a penny: see Rainbow Drops\nAmerica had its own penny candy. The first sold there was the Tootsie Roll, in 1907: see do Americans have pick and mix?\nDecimal Day\nDecimalisation was announced in 1966, and on 15 February 1971 the pound was divided into 100 new pence. Each new penny was worth 2.4 old pence. The old penny was withdrawn from circulation on 31 August 1971, and a new halfpenny, worth 1.2 old pence, kept small prices possible.\nThe change brought complaints. Some people felt that traders had used it to raise their prices, although, according to Wikipedia's account, overall price adjustments slightly favoured the shopper.\nThe penny today\nInflation wore the small coins down. The decimal halfpenny was dropped in 1984, once inflation had greatly reduced its value, and since around 2002 the penny has had the lowest value in real terms of any coin in the history of the United Kingdom, going back at least to 1707. Since 1992, pennies have been made of copper plated steel, because copper became too expensive.\nThe name has outlived the price. For how loose sweets are priced today, see why is pick and mix sold by weight?",
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