These coins were called 'pennies'. Others believe that the penny, like the Scandinavian words for 'money', got its name from the pans into which the molten metal for making coins was poured. In German money there are 100 Pfennigs in a Deutschemark and it is thought that 'Pfennig' might come from 'Pfanne', the German for 'pan'. The Danish word for a pan is 'pande' but in old Danish a small pan was called 'penninge', from which the word for 'penge' meaning 'money' possibly comes. We will probably never know for certain.
Wars cost a great deal of money.
Alfred the Great, who prevented the Vikings from conquering all England, increased the number of mints to at least 8 so that he would have enough coins to pay his soldiers and to build forts and ships. The kings after Alfred needed more and more mints to pay for defence. Athelstan had 30 and in order to keep control of them all he passed a law in 928 stating that there was to be only one single type of money or currency in England, and ever since there has been just one. This was many centuries before other major European countries such as France, Germany and Italy had their own national currency. Instead of fighting the invaders, some English kings preferred to pay the Vikings to leave them in peace.