Who here collects elongated cents?

coinguy89

Are there any price guides out, or do we just base these coins on whatever we feel like? Ive got hundreds like around, some real old, some really new, most in between. Is there any grading scale for these either?
Which types get premiums?

Louis

A recent purchase of mine. I have no idea about price guides.

tmot99

I only collect elongateds from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. I am always looking for them, but they are hard to come by. I don't use a price guide, and maybe I get ripped off, but I buy what I can find. There may be a published price guide, but I can't find one.

Tootawl

I have a growing collection from all the places I go to. I finally found 2x2s for elongated coins on Ebay. I couldn't find them anywhere else.

baccaruda

tmot99 -

Jason Trusty from our old board "Numisaddict" offered me an elongated 1886? Liberty nickel from the 1893 Columbian Expo. The nickel was very obviously BU (before being smashed of course). I should have bought it, but didn't.

coinguy89

Well I collect them, but not too seriously, because there so cheap, and wherever I can find a machine, I get my best penny and a couple quarters out. I would like to find some kind of prices to base it off of, because if im spending like 3 or 4 bucks on these, cause I don't make that much, I wanna know what I should be spending the more money on. Mostly though i'll get them from machines. I use the plastic 2x2 flips, with two sides, I put the EC in one side and the other I put a piece of paper telling what coin, the date(if it can be figured out), what the EC is(usually the location) and any misc info on it. But sadly I ran out of those plastic flips and I got 41 left unprotected and uncatologed.

tmot99

Baccaruda:

Liberty nickels are very common. I even have a few extras if you are still looking for one. The "main" one I have in my collection didn't get completely smushed on the back. You can still feel the texture of the Liberty and letters. Really cool. Indian head pennies are also very common and can be picked up on eBay pretty regularly. My local coin dealer even has a couple for sale.

Tough finds are quarters and half dollars. I have a Canadian Large Cent and an English Penny that are really cool. It makes for an interesting side collection to the normal coins.

JrGMan2004

Where's MrPaseo? He started collecting em

Shamika

My son has started collecting these. They're pretty cool.

mrearlygold

They're cool!

Tom

steelheadbob

My kids collect them and some of them are really neat. You can find alot of them on Ebay and most are really cheap.There is a guy on Ebay Success4you(Ebay ID) Don Adams who makes different ones. If you email him I bet he could steer you to a price guide. I have bought a few from him and he is a good seller.

Veep

A couple of years a go at a Chicago show, JH Cline was selling elongated SLQs for a couple of bucks.

cladking

Prices for these tend to be based on age, importance and mintages. The early ones
are from the 1892 era and can bring up to $100 or so. (I once had a c/n three cent piece
elongate). World's fair pieces are popular and tend to go for ten to fifteen dollars.

Many people collect these by themes such as coin club, world's fair, or numismatic pub-
lishers. Other people are interested in them largely as mementos of their travels.

UncleWiggly

I came across a whole bunch of elongated club sites and web oages. One guy even had a oldtime hand cranked smusher!

Jerry

Cam40

Woow, thats the first elongated IHC i,ve seen. Very cool Louis.
I only have a few elongaters.
One is from the Sands casino in Vegas. When it was still there.
I think they built the Venetian in its spot....

JadeRareCoin

I collect elongated paper money....................just kidding.


I buy these in collections quite often. In fact, I just picked up a few last week. Some are valuable ($50 or more), depending on the theme and if the coin's date is still readable. Elongated cents are neat pieces of Americana.

Gemini

Here is a site that has much about elongated coins.
Squished Penny Museum

dorkkarl

i used to have a small collection, some 20 examples, but sold all of 'em a few years ago. ebay is a very good price guide for these interesting items.

K S

Tootawl

There is a guy who has a table at the Baltimore shows that has a hand crank cent smasher. The image was made for the Baltimore shows and has the dates of the shows on the coin. He gives them out for free.

mrpaseo

JrGman, your right, I did just start collecting them, thanks for the idea, I'll have to add these to my web site...If I can ever catch up

I think they are cool looking, especially when we can still see the date of the coin that was squished I never heard of any coin other than the Lincoln cent being elongated, this opens a whole new dorr to possibilities

Woo hoo

me

JadeRareCoin

The ultra-rich collectors who "have it all" tend to collect elongated Stellas or elongated 1804 dollars. I am still stuck on elongated cents.

I was fortunate to pick-up a small group of 10 elongated cents last year that were amazingly well preserved. They dated from 1904 to 1939 and were full mint red! That adds a big premium.

baccaruda

Tmot -

When he asked me if I was interested I was lukewarm at best, but when I saw it later it was actually very nice. Well "struck", clean, centered. We were admiring how fresh the surfaces of the nickel were. It didn't push me over the edge into elongated cent collecting, but it did make me curious. I check what's out there on Ebay occasionaly and I definitely make them myself when visiting museums, etc.

baccaruda

There is a guy who has a table at the Baltimore shows that has a hand crank cent smasher. The image was made for the Baltimore shows and has the dates of the shows on the coin. He gives them out for free.

He was at Milwaukee too - nice guy. Peppermints and elongated cents if I remember correctly.

coinguy89

Well at the present time almost all of mine are cents, all very new, but one wheat cent. Ive got a few dime ones and a few quarter ones, all present day, next time I go to an older machine, im gonna take some indian cent pennys. Give my collection alittle spice. I would love to be able to get some really older ones. Wouldn't they be less money, than a coin in say PO-1, since there technically by grading standards damaged?

baccaruda

Wouldn't they be less money, than a coin in say PO-1, since there technically by grading standards damaged?

You might try that angle with the seller, but I don't think it'll get you too far.

mayor1

Ray Dillard is the elderly gentleman who sets up at larger shows with his elongated machine and gives examples away. There is an organization called TEC for those who collect elongateds. One of the leaders in the field recently passed away (Dottie Dow) . I believe she put her initials DD on the ones she made.

coinguy89

<< <i>Wouldn't they be less money, than a coin in say PO-1, since there technically by grading standards damaged?

You might try that angle with the seller, but I don't think it'll get you too far. >>



Well would there be a premium then, I don't wanna over pay for some of these.

Tootawl

The TEC web site

baccaruda

Well would there be a premium then, I don't wanna over pay for some of these.

Going back to your original question, I really don't know if there's a price guide. This strikes me as a highly specialized market where you pretty much "pay what you feel". Most of the nickels I've seen from the 1893 Columbian have been about $25 or so - and varies pretty widely based on timing. I just bought a large metal key from the 1933 Century of Progress for $18, thought it was a pretty good deal, and then found someone on Ebay paid $70+ for the exact same key. There's probably some guidelines somewhere but I think this is more of a "gut" market - kinda like sample slabs I'd think.

cladking

<< <i>Well would there be a premium then, I don't wanna over pay for some of these.

Going back to your original question, I really don't know if there's a price guide. This strikes me as a highly specialized market where you pretty much "pay what you feel". Most of the nickels I've seen from the 1893 Columbian have been about $25 or so - and varies pretty widely based on timing. I just bought a large metal key from the 1933 Century of Progress for $18, thought it was a pretty good deal, and then found someone on Ebay paid $70+ for the exact same key. There's probably some guidelines somewhere but I think this is more of a "gut" market - kinda like sample slabs I'd think. >>



There are a huge number of different tokens and medals. They tend to be priced on the
basis of their category and apparent position within the category. Collectors generally
have a good idea of rarity based on how often they see it but most don't have enough
specific demand to push the price beyond these levels. Most of the ones with greater pre-
miums caused by demand are relatively common (meaning 50 to 200 examples exist).

While no real pricing guide for all tokens and medals is likely to exist there are several
which are specific to some categories. Some of these do an excellent job of pricing and
others need a lot of "fudge factors" to get close to a price. One of the best catalogs to
get an idea of various tokens is "Tokens and Medals" Alpert-Elman 1992. They show
elongates ranging from 20c to $25, though the high end seems low for the real rarities.

Baley

does a railroad track squished coin count as "elongated"?

epicrecipe

My wife and I can't walk past a "smashed penny" machine without adding to our collection. I think we got started at Disneyland the year we met and haven't stopped. We have a few hundred now, mostly from tourist traps and amusement parks. My nieces enjoy picking through them when they visit.

lordmarcovan

My wife collects them, but only from places we've visited. She has to get a lapel pin and an elongated cent at every touristy spot we go. Sorta like the old spoons that people used to collect, or the shot glasses. My boss is quite the world traveler and gets a keychain and coffee mug everywhere he goes. I rather like the cents, for obvious reasons. They also are less cluttersome souvenirs, even if they serve no practical function. I like to use Wheaties or Canadian cents or other Darkside coins of the right size in the machines, sometimes.

I just noticed my wife has a little album for her elongated cents, now, which she obviously picked up on our recent trip to Charleston, almost certainly at the SC Aquarium. Looking up the web address on the album, I found it online. There's no tellin' what she paid for it in some souvenir shop, but it's pretty neat, I guess.

PS- the site in that link has a directory of elongated penny machines across the country (and world). Oh, and the little album my wife bought is seriously PVC. But I guess that doesn't matter quite so much with modern elongated cents, unless you're really serious about 'em.

AJ2525

I am yet another who likes elongates from all of the places I have visited. I try hard to only use 1959 cents in them and make it so the obverse is the back of the elongate. I've gotten a few quarter ones, a few nickel ones and one 5 pfennig from (West) Germany. I enjoy the two hundred I have and keep most of them in a plastic sandwich bag. The only one that maybe harder to find is a really poor, the machine was on its last legs, was the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose when they were together at Long Beach, CA.

Maybe I'll see if I have any multiples, I usually only get one.

coinguy89

I want to put a proof in one of the machines really bad.

cladking

<< <i>I want to put a proof in one of the machines really bad. >>



Buy some culls. These can be had for very little money and purchased in some quantity.
Even the S-mint only coins can run as low as a quarter each or so and most of the defects
will disappear when stretched.

coinguy89

<< <i>

<< <i>I want to put a proof in one of the machines really bad. >>



Buy some culls. These can be had for very little money and purchased in some quantity.
Even the S-mint only coins can run as low as a quarter each or so and most of the defects
will disappear when stretched. >>



Sadly I don't know what "culls" are.

mrpaseo

I've seen many rolls of 1964 Proof coins sell pretty cheap on Ebay. This might be a good way to obtain some proofs for elangated coins.

tmot99

I would suspect that you wouldn't be able to tell that it was a proof coin that you put into the machine.

cladking

Culls are what's left from a stash of coins after you pull out all the acceptable ones. They
often will have tarnish, damage, or other problem which makes them unsaleable as proofs.
While a proof would lose its proof surfaces except where it was gripped, it would retain an
S- mint mark proving it to be a proof.

paigowjohnny

If you're really interested in elongateds, that TEC web site that TooTawl linked in an earlier post is a good start. get in touch with Bob Fritsch, who has an e-mail link on that site...he's good people and is passionate about elongateds...

shirohniichan

My family just got back from our vacation to San Francisco, and we picked up about 6 or 7 for my daughter's collection.

I was kind of ashamed of getting my daughter into collecting those things, but I see there is a strong support group here.

NumisOxide

I have about 4 of them in my coin binder. My most recent was from a family vacation at Lake George, NY. It's from the Museum and Fort William Henry. It's cool because I can see the cents year 1987 on the reverse.

NoGvmnt

Does anyone know; when a coin goes through the machine for it to come out with a lamination would it have to be defective prior to being fed into the machine or could the smashing and stretching cause a lamination where one did not exist?

Jim

richbeat

I wouldn't say I actively collect them, but if I were ever near a machine I'd probably have at least one made. I have four elongated cents from a vacation trip to Southern California a few years back. One is from the Balboa Fun Zone, an amusement park just off Newport Beach. The other three came from Disneyland. You can have a bunch of different ones made at Disneyland but I only did three. Nickels too, if I remember correctly.