I have often wondered what the penny stands for when talking about nails…of course I knew it had something to do with size and I knew to use a 16 penny nail for framing. Where did the term penny come from?…What is the measure of a penny?….Here are some answers for all the curious crowds. The term ‘penny’ usually denoted as ‘d’ after the size number (for example: 16d means 16 penny nail) came from the Romans. The ‘d’ stands for denarius which is a Roman penny. A certain number of nails that cost 16 cents would be classified as 16 penny nails or 16 denarius nails to be technical.
The penny of a nail is used to denote the nail’s length. Don’t worry though, modern boxes of nails have both the penny of the nail and the translation in to length 16d = 3.5inches. Here is a table of lengths to pennies for later use:
4d – - – - – 1.5″
5d – - – - – 1.75″
6d – - – - – 2″
7d – - – - – 2.25″
8d – - – - – 2.5″
9d – - – - – 2.75″
10d – - – - 3.0″
12d – - – - 3.25″
16d – - – - 3.5″
20d – - – - 4.0″
30d – - – - 4.5″

here is one of the references I used for this blog…
Readers Digest

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