The penny has dropped, all the way into the abyss of language history.  For yesterday I heard a Radio 4 news reader declare that something or other had gone up or down by one pence.  After the endorsement by such an authority of a singularity that I have noticed in the vox publica in recent years the OED will surely put in its tuppence worth and decree that one p, one penny and one pence are but three sides of the same coin.

Can less instead of fewer be far behind?