Is 1 penny equal to 1 cent?

Answer 1

In the US and Canada, the answer is yes but only in slang usage.

Technically neither country mints a coin called a penny, only cents. Both were originally British colonies, though and their early 1-cent coins were large, about the same size as the 1-penny coin used in Britain at the time. People kept using the old term "penny" because the coins were similar, and it stuck even when the current small-size cents were introduced.

It's a lot like saying that you "dial" a telephone even though they haven't had dials for decades.