HomePick of the Day1963 Mini Penny Car

1963 Mini Penny Car

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The Mini Penny Car gleams in copper-encrusted homage to ‘Penny Lane’
The Mini Penny Car glows with copper-encrusted glory.

“Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes.”

And on my car, apparently, in this awesome tribute to The Beatles’ classic hit of 1967.

The 1963 Morris Mini Minor has had approximately 4,000 British pennies glued and grouted onto its surface in gleaming homage to “Penny Lane” by a woman in England whose father was a professional panhandler and left her a pile of the coins, according to the seller, MotoeXotica Classic Cars of Fenton, Missouri. That would be a tough story to make up.

Around 4,000 British pennies are attached to the Mini
Around 4,000 British pennies are attached to the Mini

“This extremely rare and unique 1963 Morris Mini Minor Penny Car” has coins attached to it that range in year from 1860 to 1969, the seller adds, raising the possibility of some valuable finds among them.

The unnamed British woman who created the Mini penny car was inspired by others who sought to memorialize the popular Beatles song.

“These Penny Cars were made to commemorate and promote The Beatles Penny Lane track,” the seller says. “Beatles lead singer Paul McCartney had two of these Morris Penny Cars commissioned for himself. One is at Cornish Goldsmiths in Cornwall, England, and the other is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in San Francisco.”

But here we have the only known Mini penny car that’s available today, and if you’d like to find out the price tag – in dollars, not pennies – you’ll need to contact the seller. See the ad in ClassicCars.com by clicking Mini penny car. 

The coating of pennies only adds about 200 pounds to the weight of the tiny car, and it is still fully drivable, although it was a car used in England so it has right-hand drive. There are a few minor dents, dings and missing pennies, but the car is presentable as is or it could be brought up a notch by any dedicated Beatles fan.

Bob Golfen
Bob Golfen
Bob Golfen is a longtime automotive writer and editor, focusing on new vehicles, collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle. He is the former automotive writer and editor for The Arizona Republic and SPEED.com, the website for the SPEED motorsports channel. He has written free-lance articles for a number of publications, including Autoweek, The New York Times and Barrett-Jackson auction catalogs. A collector car enthusiast with a wide range of knowledge about the old cars that we all love and desire, Bob enjoys tinkering with archaic machinery. His current obsession is a 1962 Porsche 356 Super coupe.

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