I love penny smashers. I have a paradoxical attitude toward souvenirs: on one hand, I like to have reminders of places I've visited as well as a physical token of "proof" that I've been there; on the other hand, I hate household clutter and don't like to spend money on what amounts to junk. Penny smashers fill a perfect role. They are literally a token of proof that I've been to a place, while also taking up almost no space and being very cheap.
For anyone who's not familiar: all over the place at tourist attractions and airports you can find mechanical presses that will squish a penny with an embossed image. You pick one of 4 images, put in your penny + a couple of quarters and then turn a big crank handle until your newly pressed penny comes out the other side. You'd then collect squished pennies in a little collector's folio/pouch/thing for later viewing.
I guess now that pennies are getting phased out they'll have to "upgrade" the machines to work with other coins...
Many traditional machines where you put in 2-4 quarters and a real penny have been phased out for credit card readers now that just drop a penny from inside the machine. It does kind of ruin some of the charm.
Was just in vegas and one of them kept spitting out blanks. I have a feeling people swiped their card and didn't realize they needed to keep rotating and assumed it broke. Ended up with a whole collection before getting tired and leaving it. No telling how many more it would have spit out.
They do exist here in Germany as well, mostly in tourist destinations. The map does not show any outside the US, though. OpenStreetMap has 662 of them here.
Definitely not common but I’ve seen a couple while traveling. I saw one in Gijón, Spain last week. I also remember seeing one at the Tower of London 10ish years ago.
I used a machine like that in Sweden or Norway once many years ago, but although it pretended to squish the coin you put into it I am almost completely sure that this particular machine was instead using a different piece of metal that was already flat and softer material than the metal in a real coin.
Same here in Canada. The solution is that the machines accept a Canadian quarter to run the press, but an American penny to be pressed. No Canadian currency is harmed!
Only with intent to defraud is it a crime in America to deface US currency. Shaving a bit of the copper off every penny you touch, to melt down and profit from? Crime. Scribbling off the 1 on a $10 bill and scribbling on a 2? Crime. Cutting up pennies to show off the unmatched strength of your shitty kitchen shears? Perfectly legal.
This reminds me so deeply of the "old" internet that I can't help but want to get into penny pressing machines just for the sake of wanting to find this website useful to me. Just someone with a passion, cataloging it and sharing it with everyone else with no other ulterior motives.
There used to be one at the museum of natural history in NYC, where if you didn't have the supplies you could pay a dollar to get 4 quarters to activate the machine and a penny to squish. It was a legit infinite money bug in the real world :-)
You don't see a lot of sites that use a window.alert() to tell you to sign up like that... would love an about us to know who had the passion to make this.
I'm much more interested in the metal typer(?) -- machines that have a custom medallion in them and you get to stamp a message into their circumference letter by letter. Is there any map that lists those?
It's a machine that has custom medallions in it, typically themed to the location. All but one that I've seen have been aluminum. You pay in, then you have an arm that you can spin around an alphabet to select a letter. Then you pull a lever, and that letter gets stamped into the medallion. You can do this around the circumference of the medallion, up to something like 25-30 letters. When you're done you pull another lever and the medallion drops out, engraved with whatever custom message you entered.
In the movie Harold and Maude, Harold and Maude are sitting on the shore near an amusement park, and Harold says "I made you something" and gives her one of these medallions from the park, reading "Harold loves Maude." She expresses appreciation, then throws it into the water. He's stunned and asks why, and she replies, "So I'll always know where it is."
Whenever I come across one of these machines I make a medallion that says "Geoff loves Katerina" for my wife, but over many years, she only has four of them. I'd like to find more machines.
As I said, most are aluminum. There used to be a machine like this at the exit from Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. That one used "doubloons" made of some other (heavier) metal.
That's comforting to hear. I can't remember the last time I've used one of these, but the map says there is one just north of my house, so maybe I'll make the trip soon.
Again my inability to interpret information properly meant that based on the title, I thought this was a pressed penny machine that pressed a map onto a penny! My first thought was, 'How small the map gonna be if it's gonna be on a penny? It's going to be nearly useless in helping you navigate surely?'
Does anyone know how to get a "good" penny for these machines? Often mine are hard to interpret when they're done and just look like a garbled mess. Do I need a penny that is sufficiently old or what
As a person who has never walked by a penny smasher without smashing a penny: Any old copper penny is fine. Pick the cleanest one you have.
Maximum clarity is achieved with pre-1982 pennies. It can be well-worn or have nicely-defined features; that doesn't matter, those features are getting smashed anyway. (Post-1982 pennies are primarily zinc and tend to produce smeary results that have their own way of being interesting, but that's not what you asked about.)
Sometimes, the grime on an old coin gets in the way. You can wash it first. Take it in the bathroom that's always nearby at these touristy places and use soap and water; get it spruced up a bit.
You can even polish it. Coin collectors hate the idea of chemical polishing but they aren't invited to this coin-smashing party anyway. There's lots of different things that can be used to make copper shiny and bright and some are very easy to find while out and about.
Like ketchup, from the burger joint right over there: Just smoosh some ketchup around on a penny that's already fairly clean and the acids in the ketchup will do a decent job of making it bright and pink over the course of just a few minutes. (This works on copper-bottomed cookware, too.)
If it's one of those new-fangled machines that takes credit cards and comes pre-loaded with pennies, then that's fine: Smash some pennies and clean/polish them later.
I'd imagine that pennies minted before 1982 (those that are mostly copper) are best for these machines. The newer pennies (now discontinued R.I.P.) probably aren't great under pressure.
The new machines I’ve used lately, my kid is into it, take credit card and have the penny preloaded
It’s probably more expensive usually $3-5 but also, it’s usually tourist trap pricing. I never have carried a penny on me since probably the 80s when I could actually use it to buy gum
I love penny smashers. I have a paradoxical attitude toward souvenirs: on one hand, I like to have reminders of places I've visited as well as a physical token of "proof" that I've been there; on the other hand, I hate household clutter and don't like to spend money on what amounts to junk. Penny smashers fill a perfect role. They are literally a token of proof that I've been to a place, while also taking up almost no space and being very cheap.
Fridge magnets are this for me, but having a way to display a whole collection of smashed pennies would be pretty great too.
I like stickers for this! Basically everywhere sells them, and it’s easy to find something big to put them on. For me that’s my cat’s wheel.
Fridge magnets are great too, but my fridge’s doors are made out of aluminum for some reason.
Epoxy and a neodymium disk magnet and Bob's your uncle
Are these a thing outside the US?
For anyone who's not familiar: all over the place at tourist attractions and airports you can find mechanical presses that will squish a penny with an embossed image. You pick one of 4 images, put in your penny + a couple of quarters and then turn a big crank handle until your newly pressed penny comes out the other side. You'd then collect squished pennies in a little collector's folio/pouch/thing for later viewing.
I guess now that pennies are getting phased out they'll have to "upgrade" the machines to work with other coins...
Many traditional machines where you put in 2-4 quarters and a real penny have been phased out for credit card readers now that just drop a penny from inside the machine. It does kind of ruin some of the charm.
They're not even a penny anymore; they're using copper blanks.
That said, I have seen several that take a credit card (or dollar bills) but you still hand crank them, so you still get the experience.
Was just in vegas and one of them kept spitting out blanks. I have a feeling people swiped their card and didn't realize they needed to keep rotating and assumed it broke. Ended up with a whole collection before getting tired and leaving it. No telling how many more it would have spit out.
They do exist here in Germany as well, mostly in tourist destinations. The map does not show any outside the US, though. OpenStreetMap has 662 of them here.
Definitely not common but I’ve seen a couple while traveling. I saw one in Gijón, Spain last week. I also remember seeing one at the Tower of London 10ish years ago.
For those who have not seen one in action:
https://youtube.com/shorts/HzCCsZB4jKg?is=377XKg7gUXfMHzA2
I used a machine like that in Sweden or Norway once many years ago, but although it pretended to squish the coin you put into it I am almost completely sure that this particular machine was instead using a different piece of metal that was already flat and softer material than the metal in a real coin.
Lugo, Spain. At least two at souvenir shops at the cathedral. my daughter used both a few days ago :-)
They have this sort of thing on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, but I think they take nickels now (since pennies haven't been minted since 2012).
I have seen them in Japan and many European countries, but I don't remember which ones :/
Destroying currency is crime in Australia, so no, this has never been a thing, here.
Same here in Canada. The solution is that the machines accept a Canadian quarter to run the press, but an American penny to be pressed. No Canadian currency is harmed!
It's technically a crime in America too, but I guess Americans are more outlaw than Australians in that rather specific regard.
Only with intent to defraud is it a crime in America to deface US currency. Shaving a bit of the copper off every penny you touch, to melt down and profit from? Crime. Scribbling off the 1 on a $10 bill and scribbling on a 2? Crime. Cutting up pennies to show off the unmatched strength of your shitty kitchen shears? Perfectly legal.
What about intent to gain power over others? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9aM_dT5VMI
It's legal in America
https://www.parkpennies.com/-dl-disneyland-pressed-coin-guid...
> It's technically a crime in America too
I knew before even entering the comment section that someone here would be spreading this myth.
I saw one in El Salvador recently (they use US currency, including pennies).
There was one in Strasbourg, France, by the cathedral
There's one at the Leeds armoury in the UK.
Tower Bridge in London has several.
They have them in Canada, or at least they used to in 1983.
This reminds me so deeply of the "old" internet that I can't help but want to get into penny pressing machines just for the sake of wanting to find this website useful to me. Just someone with a passion, cataloging it and sharing it with everyone else with no other ulterior motives.
I was just thinking to myself that this is the kind of content that’s perfect for the internet.
There used to be one at the museum of natural history in NYC, where if you didn't have the supplies you could pay a dollar to get 4 quarters to activate the machine and a penny to squish. It was a legit infinite money bug in the real world :-)
If you are into the ones at Walt Disney World, https://www.presscoins.com/
You don't see a lot of sites that use a window.alert() to tell you to sign up like that... would love an about us to know who had the passion to make this.
I should have posted the plain URL https://pennypresses.net/ they have an About Us section and more info about the project.
I'm much more interested in the metal typer(?) -- machines that have a custom medallion in them and you get to stamp a message into their circumference letter by letter. Is there any map that lists those?
Not sure I know what that is - more details ?
It's a machine that has custom medallions in it, typically themed to the location. All but one that I've seen have been aluminum. You pay in, then you have an arm that you can spin around an alphabet to select a letter. Then you pull a lever, and that letter gets stamped into the medallion. You can do this around the circumference of the medallion, up to something like 25-30 letters. When you're done you pull another lever and the medallion drops out, engraved with whatever custom message you entered.
In the movie Harold and Maude, Harold and Maude are sitting on the shore near an amusement park, and Harold says "I made you something" and gives her one of these medallions from the park, reading "Harold loves Maude." She expresses appreciation, then throws it into the water. He's stunned and asks why, and she replies, "So I'll always know where it is."
Whenever I come across one of these machines I make a medallion that says "Geoff loves Katerina" for my wife, but over many years, she only has four of them. I'd like to find more machines.
As I said, most are aluminum. There used to be a machine like this at the exit from Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. That one used "doubloons" made of some other (heavier) metal.
There are so many “map” websites for all sorts of niche things. Someone should make a “map map” to map out all the maps. Map.
I wonder if we see these slowly disappear now that the penny is no longer minted for general circulation in the US
No, a lot of the newer machines don't even ask you to put in a penny, they'll provide you one. I bet enough will be stockpiled to last indefinitely.
That's comforting to hear. I can't remember the last time I've used one of these, but the map says there is one just north of my house, so maybe I'll make the trip soon.
Also a lot of them use copper blanks
There's also https://www.pennycollector.com/
Again my inability to interpret information properly meant that based on the title, I thought this was a pressed penny machine that pressed a map onto a penny! My first thought was, 'How small the map gonna be if it's gonna be on a penny? It's going to be nearly useless in helping you navigate surely?'
There used to be one at the World Trade Center. Before 9/11.
I feel an urge to visit and fill in data for all the nearby ones.
Does anyone know how to get a "good" penny for these machines? Often mine are hard to interpret when they're done and just look like a garbled mess. Do I need a penny that is sufficiently old or what
As a person who has never walked by a penny smasher without smashing a penny: Any old copper penny is fine. Pick the cleanest one you have.
Maximum clarity is achieved with pre-1982 pennies. It can be well-worn or have nicely-defined features; that doesn't matter, those features are getting smashed anyway. (Post-1982 pennies are primarily zinc and tend to produce smeary results that have their own way of being interesting, but that's not what you asked about.)
Sometimes, the grime on an old coin gets in the way. You can wash it first. Take it in the bathroom that's always nearby at these touristy places and use soap and water; get it spruced up a bit.
You can even polish it. Coin collectors hate the idea of chemical polishing but they aren't invited to this coin-smashing party anyway. There's lots of different things that can be used to make copper shiny and bright and some are very easy to find while out and about.
Like ketchup, from the burger joint right over there: Just smoosh some ketchup around on a penny that's already fairly clean and the acids in the ketchup will do a decent job of making it bright and pink over the course of just a few minutes. (This works on copper-bottomed cookware, too.)
If it's one of those new-fangled machines that takes credit cards and comes pre-loaded with pennies, then that's fine: Smash some pennies and clean/polish them later.
I'd imagine that pennies minted before 1982 (those that are mostly copper) are best for these machines. The newer pennies (now discontinued R.I.P.) probably aren't great under pressure.
The new machines I’ve used lately, my kid is into it, take credit card and have the penny preloaded
It’s probably more expensive usually $3-5 but also, it’s usually tourist trap pricing. I never have carried a penny on me since probably the 80s when I could actually use it to buy gum
Best to use an old solid copper one, for the USA that's before 1982, for the UK before 1992.
I hate how they don’t actually press the penny. They have a whole stack of blanks to use.
At least, not a single one I’ve seen.
Now I want a collection of all these. Especially the National Parks !