Pennying is a simple drinking game popular among students at the University of Cambridge, and rumoured to have originated there in the reign of King Henry VIII in the 16th century but actually probably only goes back a few decades. Unlike most drinking games, the rules of pennying are almost never explicitly declared to be in force; rather, by putting oneself in a social situation involving the consumption of alcohol, one is implicitly subjected to the rules should a “Pennying” situation occur. This state of affairs is most likely to be enforced at dinner known as Formal Halls where cheap wine is drunk and it is common for complete strangers to “Penny” each other. The occurrence is less in pubs where drinks are larger and more expensive.

Rules Of Pennying

Universally accepted rules

• Should someone manage to slip a penny into another person’s drink, the owner of the drink must completely consume it within a set period of time (usually two minutes or less, or in any case the next time they touch the glass) and in one go, that is to say, without pausing between sips for breath or respite. Normally the victim is required to finish his/her drink the next time he/she touches its receptacle.
• The “victim” of the pennying is thereafter said to have been “pennied”.
• A person unknowingly slipping a penny into a drink that already contains one (that is to say, “double-pennying”) is obliged to consume that drink as if he or she themselves had been pennied.
• The owner of a pennied drink is allowed to keep the penny if the drink is consumed according to the pennying restrictions. Therefore, a “pennied” person has the small comfort of a free penny at the end of their forfeit, whereas someone guilty of “double-pennying” must forfeit their own penny to the owner of the drink.
• It is generally frowned upon, possibly even to the point of taboo, to refuse to drink a pennied beverage, to place one’s hand over a glass or bottle in order to avoid its being pennied, or to intentionally “double-penny” a beverage with the intention of earning a free drink. Such acts can lead to social ostracision of the culprit, or the arrangement of later pranks of which the perpetrator is the victim.
• Secondary pennying (a pennied person pennying someone else’s drink) is usually permitted, but the secondary victim does not have to consume their drink until the primary victim finishes theirs.
• Pouring someone a drink and immediately pennying it is not allowed; the victim has to accept his/her drink before being legitimately pennied.
• Professor Stephen Hawking is not to be pennied. This is not actually a rule, but is now widely accepted after two Robinson College students attending a Caius College formal hall were fined in excess of £50 and given a lifelong ban from the college for pennying his dessert.

Variations and additional rules

• Double-penniers are required, in addition to consuming the double-pennied drink, to buy the original drink owner a new drink, equivalent in genre or price to the pennied beverage. This acts as an effective deterrent to those who would intentionally double-penny a drink with the goal of winning a free one.
• Double-penniers are required, in addition to consuming the double-pennied drink, to buy the original drink owner a new drink of the owner’s choosing. See above.
• Coins not featuring the reigning Sovereign (foreign coins and those featuring deceased monarchs) do not incur the “pennying” forfeit as their submerged nature poses no metonymical danger to the Sovereign (see History Of Pennying below). Test cases involving abdicated monarchs are not known to have arisen while one was still alive (the only example in British history being Edward VIII), though theoretically a Pennied person would owe no allegiance to someone not of the direct line of succession of the British Royal Family.
• Suitably liquid foods may be used in place of drinks: soup and yoghurt are two prime targets. The victim must finish the pennied item of food in one go and without the use of cutlery.
• A desert may also be pennied, but in this case the objective is then to consume it hands free.
• Paper money is invalid for the purposes of pennying as it floats, therefore posing no danger to the Sovereign. (See History of Pennying below).
• If there are no pennies to hand (or if pennies have been banned due to their damaging effect on dishwashers), special powers may be invoked by which Honorary Penny Status is conveyed upon a seemingly mundane object such as a fork, spoon or Smartie. To convey Honorary Penny Status one must place the item in the target beverage and declare it to be “The Knife of Strife”, “The Spoon of Doom”, or some such other rhyming title.

Rules in the University of Durham

The equipment and purpose is the same, though gameplay is rather different . The main difference is that the pennying may only take place when the victim’s hand is touching his or her glass, and it must then be finished in one go, before contact with the glass is broken. Arguments about whether or not the glass was being touched at the moment the penny entered the liquid tend to result in its consumption. It is considered bad practice to attempt to penny when not in possession of an alcoholic beverage of one’s own. Failed attempts at pennying (such as where the penny misses the glass, or enters the liquid when the would-be victim was clearly not in contact with the glass) are usually accompanied by a cry of ‘mis-penny!’, followed by the forfeit of ‘downing’ one’s own drink, though this is not always enforced. Exact rules vary between colleges, and it is doubtful that in any one place a complete set of rules is known and followed. The reason for this is that the rules of the game are assumed to be universally known and preceded by the question ‘Do you know the rules of the game?’ which, if not answered with the phrase ‘It would be rude not to’, results in the ‘downing’ of the respondent’s beverage. Therefore the particulars of a certain round of ‘pennying’ (eg. left-handed drinking only) tend to be made up on the spot. Arguments about double-pennying, the consequences of the pennyer touching the victim’s glass, and the ruse of lifting one’s glass only through a napkin or similar to avoid touching it, tend to result in the downing of drinks.

History of Pennying

While no canonical text outlines the custom of pennying (hence the great variations in its practised rules), apocryphal tales and (appropriately named) oral tradition within the University of Cambridge attribute its origin to “some time in the reign of Henry VIII”. The oft-quoted reason that veteran pennyists give for the need to “drink up” is that the Sovereign (depicted on the obverse or heads side of the submerged penny) is in danger of drowning and must be rescued immediately. In more modern times, cries of “God Save The Queen!”, uttered immediately prior to the consumption of the beverage, are not unheard of among the pennied.

While the historicity of this regularly presented account of the origin of Pennying is almost as doubtful as the scientific validity of its posing actual mortal danger to the Sovereign, Pennying has certainly lasted long enough to become a credible tradition within Cambridge and, in a few select places (such as the University of Durham), elsewhere within the United Kingdom. It continues to be a very enjoyable drinking game, and the practice of pennying strangers often leads to the forging of new friendships. Pennying has even managed to adapt to the times, with narrow-necked alcopop bottles no longer safe from pennies folded in a vice, which are thus slim enough in profile to be dropped into the bottles through their openings.

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