Pressed Pennies: Collectible for Child and Adult
Something children beg their parents to let them collect that only costs fifty-one cents?
And that teaches them something worthwhile?
And that will interest you as much as your children?
Yes.
You’ve seen pressed penny machines, even if you haven’t realized what they were or plunked down the fifty-one cents to get one for yourself. Nearly every amusement park, museum and tourist attraction in the country has them today. The savvy attractions even offer maps marked with the locations of all their penny presses.
My family and my brother’s have started to judge attractions by the number of pressed pennies they offer and the quality of scenes on their pennies. We usually buy several copies of the best designs to mail to cousins in Ohio, Florida or Delaware who are also collectors. They send us great pennies they’ve discovered, and all our collections grow.
Pressed pennies represent some of the best moments in life—families together on vacation, at popular recreation areas and world-famous attractions. They tap into the fascination so many of us have for travel to new places, then serve as snapshots of places we’ve been. And they’re cheaper than any other quality souvenir.
My ten-year old nephew turned me on to pressed pennies. My first question when he asked for money for one was, “Isn’t that illegal?” My parents always told me it was back when I wanted to put pennies onto train tracks.
A lot of people must wonder the same thing, because every machine I’ve seen displays a stickered notice that answers this question. The stickers quote U.S. Code Title 18, Chapter 17, Section 331, which prohibits mutilating American coins. The law is commonly interpreted to prohibit mutilations that would increase the value of a coin for fraudulent purposes.
So pressed pennies are perfectly legal, but I warn you: they’re addictive. And very fun. Before you finish your first day of collecting them you’ll be hooked.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
What is a pressed penny?
Imagine being able to get close to the metal train wheels as they smashed one of the pennies you put on a train track years ago. Pressed penny machines offer the same fascination.
Penny-pressing machines are either hand cranked—our preferred variety—or electric. A lot of the presses allow you to watch as the penny rolls down from the coin slot and slowly passes through the engraver. Cogs and gears turn, the handle gets a little harder to turn if it’s hand cranked, then out drops a lasting memento from your vacation, weekend trip or in-town adventure.
The results are the same whether the machine is hand powered or electric—the penny you’ve provided is pressed flat by the machine and stretched to two or three times it’s normal size. (Shiny pennies work best.) At the same time, a design of your choosing is pressed into one side of the coin. More and more machines offer smashed nickels, dimes and quarters as well, which are just as fun to collect.
The best pressed pennies are ones that have designs engraved on both sides, but these are rare. You can often see the ghostly remains of Old Abe or the Lincoln Monument on the ones that are only engraved on one side. I never get tired of inspecting my pennies, amazed that the once raised image from the original coin is still perfectly clear, but also perfectly flat.
Most coin-press machines offer four designs. The name of the attraction is featured on each design along with a popular scene from it. Zoos often have machines throughout their grounds, each featuring animals that live near the machine. Highways across the country now offer machines at most rest areas. I don’t know how many penny designs Disney World has; one visitor estimated you’d have to spend more than $200 to collect them all. They have pennies that feature all their popular characters from Mickey Mouse to Buzz Lightyear, scenes from Lilo & Stitch, Monsters, Inc., Pirates of the Caribbean and all sorts of other designs meant to capture as many fifty-one cent purchases as possible. Like many places who have recognized the popularity of pressed pennies, Disney is always adding new machines and new designs.
Web-based entrepreneurs offer more options. Vintage automobiles show up on a special series of pressed pennies along with WWII airplanes, steam locomotives, professional baseball players and American presidents. The machiens that make these coins must exist in the seller’s basement, as I’ve never seen anything like these coins in any public location. The on-line angle also adds the possibility of trading coins with friends from overseas as pressed pennies—or yen or pesos or yuan—catch on around the world.
If you have some pressed penny souvenirs in the back of a drawer, you might discover they’re worth more than you’d think. Pressed pennies from the World Trade Center routinely sell for $15 or more. And collectors are always looking for pennies smashed by the older presses. Those designs were carved by hand into the steel rollers. A penny from the 1892–93 World’s Fair in Chicago, for example, recently sold for several thousand dollars.
One of the worst things that can happen on a family vacation is to track down a machine only to find an Out of Order sign on it. It’s worse than losing your luggage at the airport!
My brother showed me how to “fix” out-of-service machines though. We were at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs when we came upon one. In the minute or two I stood there, deflated, four different families were turned away by The Sign.
But my brother was unfazed. Fixing a hand-cranked machine isn’t too hard, he told me, as long as there’s no one around. He put my fifty-one cents into the slot and carefully coaxed the coins in. This part of the operation took time. His hands felt for the groove that would send the coins into their proper place. When the penny dropped into place, he gave the machine a hard, calculated shake and turned the crank. Out came a pressed penny!
I don’t recommend such repair work for novices. One of the fathers who’d been turned away by The Sign noticed our “luck” and came back with fifty-one cents of his own. He jammed the coins in with no finesse, and the machine made a troubling sound that left no doubt he wasn’t going to see a pressed penny from it. After he left, my brother “fixed” the machine three more times so I could collect all four of its pennies.
There are nearly as many options for storing your pressed penny collection as there are designs. Most souvenir shops with pressing machines also sell inexpensive, customized booklets that hold anywhere from 40 to 100 coins. I always look for books with a pressed penny on the cover; these cost the same as the plain books but add another coin to the collection. Clear plastic holders with cardboard frames are also available. These allow you to display both sides of the pressed coins, though they’re not as easy to collect into books.
Purist collectors prefer to use pennies minted before 1982, when the government began making pennies primarily out of zinc. I’ve always thought the streaks of zinc added an interesting element to the pressed pennies, evidence of the tremendous pressure they go through on their way from loose change to souvenir. Some people use only the older “wheat” pennies. Some use copper slugs they buy especially for pressing. Some collectors of pressed dimes and quarters use pre-1964 silver coins. If you choose to buy pressed coins, you’ll quickly learn that what they’re made of determines how much they cost. The post-1982 zinc pennies that I like are the cheapest. Figures!
There are many web sites that can help you develop your interest in pressed pennies. Several pages list the locations of all the smashed penny machines in the country. Some sites even give gps numbers for the machines. These include pennyatlas.com and www.pennycollector.com/locations.htm.
A good place to find more general information is at www.coinclub.com/links/elongatedcoins.html. I found the Squished Penny Museum site particularly helpful. And www.angelfire.com/ca/elongatedinternet/ has a list of web sites worth checking out.
Other sites offer coins for sale or trade. Some offer activities for collectors. One site sponsored a race between pressed penny clubs on the east and west coasts. Each group collected a certain number of pressed coins, then started them on their way across the country. (Hang around a pressed penny machine for just a few minutes and you’ll soon meet someone who’d be happy to help in a competition like this.) Everyone who was involved in the race carried the collection as far across the country as they could, included a penny or two of their own and took one or two from the collection. They also included a note telling of any interesting experiences that took place moving the coins before looking for someone to pass them on to. It’s only a matter of time before these races go international.
Pressed pennies create endless fun and educational opportunities for children! And their parents.
http://www.allaroundcolorado.info/pennies.html