The little mixmash of metals that cost more to make than what it's actually worth is getting a makeover. Last year was the end of the penny as we know it. The new penny is appearing this year because 2009 marks the 200th birthday of Lincoln's birth (for those outside the US, Lincoln's head appears on the front of the penny.) You know, sometimes I wonder why the US government still makes pennies, but i think i'd be sad if they quit making them, just for tradition's sake. Just another part of Americana i'm enamored with. I used to be in my "coins from different countries" collection. I really need to get back into that. Right now, I have about 60 or so. The weirdest one I have is from the Vatican. Odd that a country with less than 1,000 people in it needs their own currency. The world record of countries is 200+, but i don't think i'll be able to break that record in my lifetime. Speaking of breaking records, I've read the comments from yesterday's blog, and putting a vinyl record in the oven sounds kind of dangerous for the record. Exactly what temperature does the oven need to be set at? Wouldn't the record melt? I remember when i was a kid, at the library in the summer, as a warning, they'd have a thing that showed what happened to a record that was kept in a hot car too long. It had melted. (I guess you could still have rented records at the library. I went there yesterday. No records, but you could still rent audio tapes, though.)