Today is Lost Penny Day. I knew someone who found a steel penny once, then promptly lost it, so this day reminds me of him. If he's lucky I'll get him this Steel Cents Collection, which were minted due to expectations of a copper shortage in 1943. Uncirculated.

Today is also Lincoln's Birthday, so these little guys are doing double duty.

Legend has it that a penny brings good fortune, and this Irish Luck Penny, encased in Connemara marble, is sure to bring the luck of the Irish.

Seems like the marble part would make it hard to "spend", don't you think? Oh, maybe that's the whole idea! You can't accidentally give this out in change, now can you?

Here's a little bit of US history - in 1943 war time, steel pennies were minted due to expectations of a copper shortage. This Steel Cents Collection of 5 pennies (minted in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver) was never placed into circulation.

The current US penny is zinc with a copper plating. Did you know that in the 1970's they considered making them out of aluminum? A very small quantity were minted but never circulated. These aluminum pennies are now considered illegal and are subject to seizure by the Secret Service. Wow!

Developed by a professor at Brunel University in London, this fascinating kit lets you explore magnetism in a completely new way, thanks to the magnetic properties of British pennies and two extra strong Magic Penny magnets. (In case you didn't know, since 1992 the British penny has been minted in copper-plated steel, thus allowing it to become magnetic. I watch WAY too much BBC.)

Includes one US penny for comparison.

Note: This award-winning kit has been declared illegal in several southern states as it has been condemed as  "witchcraft", because, as everyone knows, you can 'spend a penny' but you cannot 'spin a penny' without touching it.