IMO, the novelty has greatly diminished now that 46 people have won it, but the distinction of it being the lowest possible monetary prize hasn't gone completely.

Any other thoughts?

It's still being talked about as "holding the offer down" and so I think it's the second most important box in the game!

Honestly? Any 'novelty' winning 1p may have had faded years ago. It started to get silly by mid-2008, to be honest...

Because the banker will very often use the presence of the penny as an excuse to keep offers down, the penny has been won far more often than any other blue amount. Heck, only about half of players who have had a penny in their box managed to avoid winning it - can you think of any other blue amount where that's the case? It's one of my least favourite aspects of the show.

But overall, I think the 1p well and truly lost its novelty value around the time when it became possible for a contestant to leave with absolutely nothing...

When was the last 1(p)athetic win?

With 46 people winning 1(p)athetic it got old years ago.

Time to replace it with ½p... or even nothing!

But 8 people have already gone with nothing.

But how many have walked away with ½p?

Honestly, things only have a distinction if a big deal of it is made on the show. There is absolutely no distinction to £9,173.14, even though no one has won that amount. On the other hand, 1p has a distinction because every game with it left in play usually involves the player being told by someone (Noel, the banker, the wings, the pilgrims) about how no one wants to leave with 1p. £250,000 has a distinction because it's the biggest prize in the show and the possibility of the next £250,000 winner is mentioned in every show.

There were a few shows where the top prize was increased to £500,000. A lot of good that did.

The 1p is mentioned every day, and that's also a lot because of the cult following this show has, and the way of going through the show they've created to make it seem a little more appealing now its allure is gone. There are people who only ever speak about this show. To me, for them the distinction doesn't matter as much as the fact they should be contacting their GP.

For me there is no distinction any more, and DoND is, now, a novelty. Hardly even that, actually.

"1p is not something that should be won on a game show. 1p is something you do in the washroom."
-Mad Mark, from a few years ago.

Sorry, couldn't resist bringing that up again .

There is no longer anything special about winning 1p, especially during a time when many countries, including my native Canada, have retired that amount from their coinage lineup.

When the first person won that amount, it was special. Then more people did it. And more. And more. After a while, it stopped being special and instead became annoying. Now 47 people have had their tickets punched for the Losers' Express. If you think that amount still carries any special significance or status nowadays, you need a serious reality check.

And then you have the people who won nothing. When that happened, the 1p stopped having any meaning whatsoever. I'd be happier with nothing as opposed to 1p. I think that's a much better amount of money, even though it's not an actual amount of money.

In a perfect world, the show would retire all of sub-£1 amounts. Many international versions of Deal have done so, and the lowest amount available is a whole amount, generally a single unit of that country's currency.

Even the show itself has become less fun, given that almost every possible thing has happened, except for one. Once that happens, there is virtually no reason to continue watching the show.