Tiberius, 14-37 AD. Produced at the Lugdunum (Lyon, France) Mint. The obverse displays TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS around, with laureate head of Tiberius facing to the right. Reverse shows PONTIF MAXIM around, with Livia as Pax (Roman goddess of peace) seated, facing right upon a throne with ornate legs. She is holding a long vertical sceptre and sprig of an olive branch. 

The Tribute Money, by Joachim Wtewael (1616) portrays Jesus being shown the tribute penny. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Jesus was given a Roman denarius. He then asked, "Whose is this image and superscription?" He was told that it was Caesar (Tiberius) and he said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:20-21)

The Greek text uses the word δηνάριον, a Roman denarius, a dime-sized silver coin, which was the typical day's wages for a day laborer during the time of Jesus. The word "peny" first appears in Wycliffe's handwritten translation of the New Testament from the 1480s. It was followed around a century later in Tyndale's 1526 version of the New Testament, which was the first edition published in the English language.

Tyndale's transcript preserved Wycliffe's term, with later editions changing the spelling to "penny." When the term "peny" or "penny" was used, it was the contemporary English silver coin, also about the size of a dime, and equivalent to a day's pay. Thus is was a good translation of denarius. Readers will find it interesting that the old abbreviation for one English penny (or pence) was '1 d.' (for 'denarius'). In fact, the 'd.' was the common usage in the United Kingdom up until 1971!

Thus, the denarius of the Romans became a "penny" in the English language Bible.