ever wonder where that giant penny came in the Batcave came from?

hahaha, you can tell i am very close to an important deadline when i'm posting about comics minutiae.

anyway, I'm reading the intro to the 10th anniversary edition of DKR and Miller mentions the penny. it was weird, because almost EVERY depiction of the cave has that huge penny and the tyrannosaurus rex in it.

























but when i thought about it this time, it was like suddenly noticing something that i'd seen a million times in my grandmother's house or something. i suddenly wanted to know, wait a second how DID that get there?

so anyway i always assumed it had something to do with twoface (and i think it does in BTAS, actually), but apparently it is tied to a villain named Penny Plunderer from World's Finest #30. Jesus, this guy is priceless:

"Pennies...and coppers! They did this to me! Pennies...coppers...copper pennies! I hate them all! When I get out, I'll get back at coppers and pennies! I'll fight coppers--with pennies! Every job I pull will involve pennies! My crime symbol will be PENNIES!"
Joe "the Penny Plunderer" Coyne, "The Penny Plunderers"