Joe Coyne AKA, "The Penny Plunderer" is a golden age foe of Batman who became obsessed with pennies after a long life of penny-related bad luck. He is generally seen as being amongst the Dark Knight's most laughable rogues, and is responsible for the Giant Penny which has become a staple of the Batcave.
History[]
Joe Coyne began his career selling nickel-priced newspapers as a child, getting frustrated with people giving him pennies for tips. As he got older, he would get in trouble for various penny related problems, getting fired for gambling on penny pitching games during work followed by a hold-up gone wrong where the police rub in Coyne's failure by pointing out the register only held pennies. This broke the man, who developed an obsession with the one cent coin during his time in prison. After getting out, he proceeded to commit crimes which centered around pennies, with Batman's first encounter with the criminal being when Coyne attempted the robbery of a rare One-Penny Black stamp at a coin and stamp showcase. This showcase also contained the giant penny often shown in the Batcave as a trophy of Batman's defeat of The Penny Plunderer. Though he is a classic adversary of Batman, he has recently been ret-conned out of Batman's rogue gallery. The giant penny has also been the focus of a ret-con and is now canonically known as an item that Two-Face attempted to use to crush Batman.
The Penny Plunderer was captured at the end of his origin issue after an attempted ambush against Batman went wrong, ironically due to his overreliance on pennies causing him to be unable to call for backup. Coyne was confirmed to be sentenced to death, making no other canonical appearances in that timeline.
However, this would not be the last appearance of the Plunderer, and Joe Coyne's next appearance would be in The Batman Chronicles #19, which depicted the Post-Crisis version of the attempted stamp robbery from his World's Finest Comics appearance. The comic was from Coyne's point of view as he told the story of the failed robbery which started with Coyne's gang using this timeline's version of the giant penny to sneak into the exhibition. It was eventually revealed that Coyne had died during the robbery and was in Hell, a misfire hitting the penny and fatally crushing the Plunderer.
The Plunderer's final appearances would be during Two-Face: Year Zero, where an unnamed man with a similar appearance and mustache to Coyne who Gordon nicknames "this... Penny Plunderer" was seen crushed to death by the giant penny, and the DC Rebirth Holiday Special as a random criminal mugging a street Santa who Superman takes out while searching for a Christmas present.
Powers and Abilities[]
None, but has some penny based gimmicks. Rolls of pennies are the most common item in his arsenal, such as the roll-shaped tear gas bomb used in one of his first robberies after establishing his new MO or the one he used as a bludgeoning weapon.
In other media[]
Parodies[]
Penny Plunderer was likely the basis for Cheapo, a villain on the short-lived adult cartoon series Stripperella. Cheapo wore a green suit and stole things of little to no value, favoring pennies as both objects to steal and as weapons. This was shown by his attempt to steal the world's largest imitation diamond and his attempt to drown his arch-enemy, the aforementioned Stripperella, in gigantic jar of pennies.