“Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck.”

How do certain coins become known as ‘lucky’ coins? In 1792, Augustine Dupre was commissioned by King Louis XVI to design a new French coinage and presented a design featuring an angel on a pedestal. While the design proved popular, Dupre soon fell under suspicion of harbouring revolutionary ideas and was sentenced to execution. But he somehow managed to escape the cold touch of the guillotine, supposedly by bribing his guards with one of his Angel Coins.

The story took hold, and the Angel Coin quickly gained a reputation as a ‘lucky’ coin.