Penny vs Pence (aka “d“ vs “p”) Is it pennies or is it pence? The plural of "penny" is "pence" when referring to an amount of money, and "pennies" when referring to a number of coins. In 1971 new British coins were initially marked with the wording NEW PENNY (singular) or NEW PENCE (plural). The word "new" was dropped in 1982. The symbol "p" was adopted to distinguish the new pennies from the old, which used the symbol "d" (from the Latin denarius, a coin used in the Roman Empire). Marvel ‘d’ vs Marvel ‘p’ Marvel comics with ‘d’ (old British Pence) or ‘p’ as opposed to Cents pricing have been erroneously described as reprints or ‘UK editions’ which is suggestive of a separate print run with Pence pricing. This is not true. The Original Silver Age Variants. Pence variant copies were printed at the same time and are the same book entirely as the Cents version; with only a change in the cover price printing plate separating the two kinds of copies. Also the cover month was removed as it would make the items seem out of date when they arrived in UK shops. Many of the Pence copies have better ink than their American cousins. It has been rumored that since the Pence copies were printed to a specific number of copies (due to reasons of limited import quota), the Pence copies were printed first. Jokingly some collectors call US Cents comics reprints of the Pence copies.

When it comes to dealing with foreign comics there are many areas to look at. One particular area we feel that is often overlooked is the publication date. For instance take a look at Dazzler #1 March 1981 with a publication date of February 28, 1981. Marvel UK’s Captain America #1, which has Dazzler #1 has a cover date of February 25, 1981; so the UK version predates the American issue by several days.