“Passenger Sophie Cooke told the BBC she assumed it was a joke when the pilot made an announcement welcoming them to the Scottish city. But soon the penny dropped — something had gone wrong.”
“The penny dropped when Mr Summerfield got a letter from a credit card firm telling him he had defaulted on payments.”
“Moreover, she says, the penny has now dropped that it’s not just new designs that are needed, but a whole new relationship between manufacturers and customers, where the seller of the product takes responsibility for its longevity.”
It is suggested that this idiom originated in the Victorian era with penny slot arcades. In the old wooden slot machines, the penny would frequently stick halfway down; users had to either wait or thump the machine before ‘the penny dropped’ and they could start their game. [1]
[1] Jack, Albert. Red Herrings & White Elephants: The Origins of the Phrases We Use Everyday (pp. 232–233). Kindle Edition.
Photo credit: Mélanie
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