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The term sterling is derived from the fact that, about the year of 775, silver coins known as “sterlings” were issued in the Saxon kingdoms,[6][dubious – discuss] 240 of them being minted from a pound of silver, the weight of which was probably about equal to the later troy pound. Because of this, large payments came to be reckoned in "pounds of sterlings", a phrase that was later shortened to "pounds sterling". After the Norman Conquest, the pound was divided for simplicity of accounting into 20 shillings and into 240 pennies, or pence.