Does a penny have to be real?

Well, this one sounds like a no-brainer, doesn't it?

And yet, the question has been posed. When is a penny a penny, and when is it a figment of your imagination? It's not quite that existential, actually. Virtual pennies. Should they count in the figure?

The idea arose because I have AdSense on this blog. Therefore, enough someones look at and click through, and I make a penny. Great. But, I'm making a ruling from the field and saying that is out of bounds.

Why?

Well, first and foremost, the idea that those pennies are earned. That's very different from found, and found is what we are investigating. I could cash a check, ask the bank to give it to me in pennies, and that would be outside the rules as well. Those pennies, while new to me, were not "found" money. They were acquired, probably even expected, so they arent pertinent to our experiment.

Secondly, virtual pennies don't exist yet. I can't pick them up, look at the year, scratch Lincoln's beard, stick them in a gumball machine. And as I have to have 10,000 pennies before they will send them to me, it's entirely probable that I wouldn't see them tangibly during the month of November at all.

Thanks to the Nest girls for their insight and recommendations. Love you!