Joshua lent me the excellent Unknown Soldiers: The story of the missing of the first world war, by Neil Hanson, increasing my holdings of his books loaned, perhaps never to be returned. He also confessed to purchasing a Dead Man's penny at auction on a UK web site, for 16 pounds.
I was reminded that I had recently bought some somewhat rare US pennies for Cole in order to complete his collection of 20th century pennies. The rarest ones, each with about 2.5 million minted, were in the 1920s and 1930s (I've forgotten which years, exactly). In any case, I paid about $12.50 for each penny from the rare years. Comparing that to the roughly 900,000 GB dead in WWI, the numbers gibe, Dead Man Penny vs US Penny—the Dead Man's Penny is dearer.
Added later: From the deep archives: German WWI grave design competition
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