Money covering article as atonement (7)
I believe the answer is:
penance
'atonement' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'money covering article' is the wordplay.
'money' becomes 'pence' (I've seen this before**).
'covering' is an insertion indicator.
'article' becomes 'an' (indefinite article).
'pence' placed around 'an' is 'PENANCE'.
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for penance that I've seen before include "Hardship" , "Mortification" , "Act of penitence" , "Self-imposed punishment" , "Self-punishment for sin" .)