CENTS

A cent is a monetary unit equal to one hundredth of the base unit of many decimal currencies. The name derives from the Latin centum, meaning hundred. In everyday usage, a cent is the smallest commonly circulating unit for many currencies, though some have no cent coin or have smaller fractions used only in accounting.

In the United States, one cent equals 0.01 dollar; the cent is most commonly encountered as the one-cent coin, commonly called a penny. Since 1982, the cent is composed primarily of zinc with a copper plating; earlier cents were copper. The symbol c or the cent sign ¢ is sometimes used in pricing.

In the euro area, one cent is 0.01 euro. Euro coins include 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50-cent denominations, along with 1- and 2-euro coins; euro banknotes begin at 5 euros. The cent, as a division, is widely used for pricing and accounting within eurozone countries.

Other currencies use the cent as a subunit of their base currency, typically at a 1/100 ratio. In some cases the cent has been phased out—for example, several countries have stopped minting the smallest denominations and use price rounding for cash transactions.

Historically, decimalization in the 18th–20th centuries standardized cent-like units as the 1/100 subdivision of major currencies, enabling simplified arithmetic and pricing. The term cent remains common in financial reporting and everyday language.