Apparently, in this town in South West England (Honiton), during the 1300's,  they would throw red-hot pennies from balconies down to the serfs below and enjoy the conflagration which ensued. And they still do it today, once a year. Perhaps the French and Germans will not understand such British humour. 

 

 

 

At least, the current decimal pennies are smaller and lighter (20.3mm, 3.56g) than the older, pre-decimal pennies (31mm, 9.4g).

This looks similar in nature to the captain sim 9.99 sale !

1 hour ago, dmwalker said:

At least, the current decimal pennies are smaller and lighter (20.3mm, 3.56g) than the older, pre-decimal pennies (31mm, 9.4g).

 

I hardly ever use coins these days. Or notes to be honest. Use my card for almost everything. 

I guess we could heat up our plastic cards till molten and throw them off balconies. 

3 hours ago, Fielder said:

Apparently, in this town in South West England (Honiton), during the 1300's,  they would throw red-hot pennies from balconies down to the serfs below and enjoy the conflagration which ensued. And they still do it today, once a year. Perhaps the French and Germans will not understand such British humour. 

I live about ten minutes down the road from Honiton. It's a word not allowed kinda place and yeah, a strange tradition to keep up considering it's all about serfdom. 

Of course, as local traditions go, this is all a bit lightweight. Ten minutes drive from me on a different road is the small town of Ottery St. Mary.  Now these guys really know how to put on a show!

No one knows why😎

The Flaming Tar Barrels video states "the origins of this tradition are lost in time."  Well, maybe some serfs who got burned by the pennies from Honiton relocated to Ottery St. Mary & one day came back to Honiton carrying flaming tar barrels & threw them into the homes of those who threw those hot pennies as payback 🔥🤪