Was a penny always worth 1 cent?

Answer 1

There's officially no American coin called a "penny". That's the name of a coin used in Britain, as well as being used in the past by many of the countries that were part of the British Empire. However, for historical reasons the name "penny" has also always been used to refer to American and Canadian 1-cent coins.

Because the U.S. was once a British colony (1776 and all that stuff) the term was in common use when the country became independent and established its own 100-based coinage system. At that time one-cent coins were much larger than they are today. They were about the same size as the one-penny coins used in England, so out of habit and familiarity the new 1-cent coins were commonly referred to as "pennies". The situation was similar in Canada, which also used large one-cent coins.

The name was so widely used that it stuck even after modern small-size cents were introduced. Thus we all still call cents "pennies" even though that's never been their correct name.