Penny? As in, one cent coin? Oh dear.

This was a rather tricky task for me, because no such thing exists in modern Australian currency. Still, determined to complete this task, I soon remedied that.

The lowest denomination coin in Australia is the five cent coin. Five cents is four too many cents to send! There was only one thing to do - split the coin!

Unfortunately, as my friends kindly pointed out, doing so would be committing a Federal offense and I could get sent to jail. Not to mention that cutting off 1/5 of 5 cents would mean chopping off the legs of a very cute echidna (the design on the coin). Oh, it would also dislodge the Queen's head from her neck. But that seems petty compared to the plight of the echidna.

So I was dissuaded from doing this task earlier on. I also didn't have anybody to mail it to. But that has gloriously changed! I had to send something to Babe Hawaii (in Vienna, no less), and so began the penny preparation.

I had to do this after everybody had left the school compound on a Friday afternoon so I wouldn't get caught. Because then I would be sent to jail! Without passing GO or collecting $200! The thought was unbearable.



The coin is firmly clamped so it can't run away. I do feel sorry for the echidna.



Hacksaw! Just the word alone is enough to give me pleasure chills down my spine. Try it! Say it out loud with me! HACKSAW. HACKSAW. HACKSAW. YES.



Ah, 1/5 of a 5 cent coin... That's 1 cent - a penny! I carefully collected the sliver of coin and brought it home to put in my envelope to Babe Hawaii. That's when I realized: it would be utterly demeaning to simply tape the piece to the letter, or drop it in. No, this penny was special. It demanded a more exquisite presentation.

I tried various things, and my first trial was this:



I managed to get the coin into a pipette. Magically. (Bonus cookies to whoever figures out how I did it!)



Unfortunately, the pipette lacked beauty - so it was disqualified. Next, I tried an ornate oriental ornithological origami opus. (Paper crane. Yeah. Orsome.)



After folding it up, it took flight and nestled itself in my bird-nest like hair...



By the way, the hair gel isn't natural grease. -_-

My origami creation liked its new nest too much, and I couldn't persuade it to take a short trip to Vienna. So I did a swift open-back operation to remove the penny, with the aid of my trusty Pikachu scissors (not pictured). I still vow to destroy those overly cute scissors, by the way. Once I get a new pair.



Who knew that origami crane blood looks like pink highlighter ink?

So I was, once again, at a loss on how to enclose this unique Australian "penny". I searched high and low, and eventually came across plasticine Mom Head! (It's a mom head meticulously sculpted out of plasticine, used for a stop-motion movie that required such an item.) It was horribly distended and, well, smushed, but it was certainly distinguishable as a head.

I stuck the sharp coin shard into the Mom Head and added a bit more red plasticine to emulate Mom Blood. This is beyond Freud.



I thought I would be happy with it. But the more and more I looked at the bleeding Mom Head, and the more and more it looked at me with its horribly smushed eyes, the more and more I felt it needed to be prettified.

The first thing at hand was a length of rope, and I set out about learning how to the fantastic Monkey Fist Knot. Half an hour later, I was still untangling the mess I had created... Obviously it was just a bit out of my league. So I settled for an interesting spiral design, reminiscent of a bee-hive. Except instead of housing bees, it housed a Mom Head with a penny.



It was looking a bit drab - not exciting or enticing. But everything in life can be fixed by highlighters. It's a known fact.



As soon as I had finished coloring it, I knew that this was it. The perfect presentation package for my newly made penny.

I also thought that it could reasonably pass as a Real Life Secret Egg.



But I abandoned that idea, possibly because there are egg laws implemented in Australia that prevent me from sending Real Life Secret Eggs to other countries.

So, I popped the penny and its beautiful housing into the package being sent. I hope Babe Hawaii likes it!