What does pennies on the dollar mean?

Question

I have always heard it in movies but they move on too fast for me to process it.

In: Other

Answer 1

“for a small ratio of the stated value”

Totally guessing here, but I think it probably started in the UK as “pennies on the pound”. In the US, we would say 1/4 as “one over four”; in the UK they would say “one on four”. So it would literally mean £(.01 + .01) / £1.