What is a 10 Penny Nail?

Naughty! I found the specs in less than 10 seconds using the search string "ten penny nail" in google (the first hit no less).

http://www.inthewoodshop.org/general/wwa20.shtml

Now, I would be interested in how you found out about CR4.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/18274/So-how-did-you-find-out-about-CR4

Too expensive.

Ten penny nails are 3 inches long (7.6 cm) and abbreviated as "10d".

bigger than an 8 penny nail but smaller than a twelve penny nail. Now if you want a real nail then we would be talking about a 16 or 20 penny nail. I have even heard tail of a 60 penny nail, Now that's a nail.

I don't know about Penny's anymore, (we metricated in 1960) and I have never heard about a 8.5 cent nail before.

Have anyone used a one penny washer? A while back I needed a big washer and the local hardware were out of stock. (The price was 75c in any case - it might be ok to get paid in washers). I drilled a hole in an old penny and used it instead.

Common or finish???

Well (deep subject for a shallow mind )...I haven't yet dug out my scales, but my assumption was that a 10 penny nail weighed 10 pennyweights. See this interesting article on Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennyweight

I had always heard that the "size" reference was because in the old days, you could buy 10 for a penny from the local blacksmith

I have heard that, for example, if you wanted a 10d nail you could get 100 of that size for 10 pennies, and you could get 100 20d nails for 20 pennies. Thus the bigger the nail, the more a 100 of them cost.

A 10 penny nail is app. 1/2 oz. Rather than trying to count nails one at a time, it was easier to charge by the pound. The reference to 10, 12, or 16penny is not a reference to a standard, but an estimate to a specific sizes count per pound.

10 penny would cost 10 cents per "hundred"

16 penny (16d) would cost 16 cents per hundred.

This is no longer used for cost estimates or sizing because the rate of inflation would constantly change our penny sizes. Try telling Home Depot that you should only pay 16 cents for a hundred 16d nails and they'd throw you out laughing. or give you a hundred nails the size of small brads.

The size no longer changes, but the cost does.