I looked through 17 pages here before posting this topic. And I did a site search as well. Apologies if I missed where this is addressed...

After much Google-ing, it seems as though a couple of bucks to buy one, and few bucks more to ship it, is the only way I'm going to get a real English penny that can be examined before my Hopping Halves trick. Which is fine if that's just the way it is. But I'd feel like a real chump if I later discovered a cheaper source. Because, I mean, it's just a UK penny for God's sake. Are they no longer in circulation over there or something?

One last question: is there another coin trick that includes an un-gimmicked English penny? I'd rather pay more and get a whole new trick along with an extra penny for Hopping Halves... Because spending $7US for a $0.02US item just seems wrong...

You can get them cheap in coin shops. However, they're going to be very dirty, and very hard to shine up to match your set.

Your best bet is to get them from a magic shop where they are new and shiney (double check before you buy). You can get sets of 4 for relatively cheap, and there are places out there that do offer free shipping.

I walked into a local coin shop and found one. Cost me 10 cents I believe.

You can find them at quite a few places online, but really there is no reason to have the coins examined before the effect. Doing that means you're going to have to switch in the gaff which is just more work.

A friend of mine went to England and said that the pennies aren't that big.

They're called a New Penny. Around the same size as our (US and Canadian) pennies. I imagine they came out close to 1967 as the most comonly available English Penny (old) has that date, and were obviously not circulated due to their current availability and that a lot of them still have their original shine.

Thanks, fellas, for your feedback. As wayno points out, they're obviously not very well circulated. Anyone who thinks they're easily/cheaply available online should take a look: the first several pages of hits are all from magic sellers. The coin's big claim to fame is obviously from its use in Scotch & Soda and Hopping Halves! (Hence the otherwise unexplainable pricey-ness.) But, on the other hand, they're not really in the rare or valuable coins category either, so the one coin shop that I did visit didn't have any on hand...

But I did manage to get my own answer to the last part of my OP when I came across an English penny version of Scotch & Soda. It came with a very nice, ungimmicked penny. (Of course, now exodus has me wondering if it's really such a bright idea to even use it as I had planned!)

Thanks, again, gents.

It's not an english penny it's a British penny, big difference. I'll sell you one for like $1.