A Penny for Your Thoughts...

Dear Yahoo!:

When did the saying "a penny for your thoughts" start, and how much would that penny be worth today?

Jamie Battle Ground, Washington

Dear Jamie:

A penny per thought hardly seems worth it these days. However in the 1500s and earlier, it may have been a fair trade. The phrase was mentioned in 1522 by Sir Thomas More in his work "Four Last Things." Playwright John Heywood included "a penny for your thoughts" in his catalog of proverbs published in 1546 or 1562. These are the earliest recorded uses, but the saying probably dates further back, as the penny itself has a long history. Britain first made silver pennies around 757 A.D., and by the reign of King Edward III (1327 to 1377), the penny was the most important coin in circulation. At the time, it was worth about one-twelfth of a shilling. The modern value is hard to pinpoint. The Straight Dope calculates a 16th-century penny would be worth $42.67 in 2001. However, a resource for actors and writers suggests two pennies would buy a beer in the 16th century, and a French Renaissance reenactment site lists the purchasing power of a penny as equal to one loaf of bread. So a penny of More and Heywood's era could be worth $2 to $4 in these modern times. Not a bad conversion rate, eh?

Quote: Local Folk Art

I have always enjoyed, to a degree going into museums, but I've also been bored when I've done that. But, once in awhile, you're walking around and suddenly "Oh wow! Look at that picture or photograph." I have had just that undisciplined sort of scatter-shot way of doing it. [If] I'm in New York City and I have time or I'm in any major city, I'd just as soon look at some kind of local folk art kind of thing. I like finding things in second hand stores. I find the most amazing drawings and a few things like that. That people wouldn't see otherwise. But yeah... about that folk artist book I'm looking through, I kind of felt like there wasn't really anything in that book of his paintings that I didn't like in some way I guess, not that my @#%$ necessarily looks like his at all, but I just thought it was pretty good."

The Fire that Fuels an Artist's Heart
Carpe Noctem  '98

( Viggo in NYC )