Alms Money Público Deposited
The name given to a tribute which was collected for the Roman pontiff in reverence of the memory of St. Peter. The payment was abolished in England in 1366, but not entirely sup- pressed, as Fabian in his Chronicle (temp. Edward IV) states that in some counties of England it was still collected. It was finally stopped by a statute of Henry VIII in 1533.
Certain small coins of Poland and Sile- sia, probably coined for paying this offer- ing, have received the name of Peters- pfennige.
The semi-ecclesiastical Pennies struck for St. Peter, at York, about A.D. 920 to 940, are commonly though incorrectly called Peter's Pence.
Selden, History of Tithes (217), states that the Anglo-Saxon term Almesfeoh or Almsfeoh, i.e., alms-money, is supposed to be the same as Peter's Pence. It was like- wise called Romefeoh and Romescot.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)