Oblong Penny Collections
gashmios
Posts: 504 ✭✭✭
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/12/20/penny-press-coins-production/87776196007/
We have a terrific collection of Oblong Pennies made from coin presses at museums, tourist sites, and historical places around the world. But now with the end of the cent, it is going to be harder and harder to create these. They might gain value. The last time at the Museum of Natural History, we struggled to find the two quarters and a cent to make these souvenirs.
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
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They're called "elongated", not "oblong". 🙄
Believe it or not, the machines can be calibrated to accept others coins, such as nickels. There are also elongated dimes, quarters, halfs, and dollars, although you don't usually see those machines out in public.
They even have coin elongating machines in other countries where cents don't exist.
So, life will go on, regardless of what happens to the US cent.
Exactly.
Not to mention they will have to roll tens of billions of cents before they even start to run out.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Tough crowd. OP is getting wrecked. 😜
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
They are oblong.
oblong /ŏb′lông″, -lŏng″/
adjective
This trouble you are having with obstructing discussion based on minor problems with language doesn't have to negatively affect your entire life. You can fix it and it is treatable.
I can go into greater detail, but I won't on a public forum. If you want help, email me privately and I can set you up with an appointment with a professional.
What is interesting, regarding your icon of the great Churchill coin, whose mother was a well known Brooklynite, had objections to objections of his use of language... the particularly famous one was on the use of prepositions:
https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/11/14/churchill-on-prepositions/
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/04/churchill-preposition/
"This a thing up with which I will not put”
That half dollar machine sounds like murder but interesting just the same
That is very Kool!
_What makes penny presses special?
For coin collector Hoff, the appeal of the elongated coin remains the nostalgia of making a souvenir you get to take home, he said. While switching to alternative methods might change the process slightly for the consumer or collector, the feelings the coins create will remain, he added.
"If you watch people waiting in line to press a penny, you oftentimes see a lot of laughter, smiles, and generally that's something they want to take home and they'll have for a while," Hoff said. "...it's a fun family thing. It's wholesome and it's interesting. It introduces family members to places and venues, and it's inexpensive."_
From the Article...
Coins are round, do you call them "rounds"?
The coins you are referring to have a well-established name. You have concocted a different name that will only confuse people.
Using consistent and understandable terminology (and spelling it correctly) within a hobby is the preferred approach. Where would we be if everyone made up their own words for things?
I call them centacular oblates.
There are some very cool elongated coins out there, many with interesting designs, and historical connections or commemorations. There is s very active collector community. Some may be surprised to hear that certain types, even those on a standard copper cents, sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Very cool oblong
Another fly speck on the windshield of life. Always an education here.
The Johnson Jeffries fight elongated is very rsre and likely the most desirable elongated altho $-wise there is the Fish St Louis Worlds Fair 1904 elongated that brings $4-5000 ( yes , thousands ) when offered. But aesthetically and historically, Id rather have the Johnson- Jeffries elongated. Ive owned two in 68 yrs of serious collecting.
Gessenfeifal
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Memento Turris Babylonis!
Didn’t t he mean oblong coin?
Edit: formating
If this thread continues long enough we might find out where we’d be “if everyone made up their own words for things”.😉
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
I don't see anybody complaining about calling them "pennies" yet. Progress of sorts?
In Europe they use a different coin. I think I used the 5 cent piece in Amsterdam.
It appears "oblong" is more annoying than "pennies". Who knew?
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Also known as Smashed Pennies, Squashed Pennies, and Pressed Pennies.
History of the Enlongated Cent:
http://www.pennycollector.com/history.html
Wall of HONOR transaction list:WonderCoin, CoinFlip, Masscrew, Travintiques, lordmarcovan, Jinx86, Gerard, ElKevvo, PROMETHIUSS88.
I recently watched a YouTube video and they gave the person blank planchets in place of the cents.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
Do most collectors flatted out their elongated coins or keep them as shaped by the rollers in the machine that created them? I like mine flat.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
they go into my wallet for weeks.
Everyone should have their own. This was my most recent type.
If the OP wants one, he need only message me his address.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Elongated half dollars? Does anyone here have one?
Custom album maker and numismatic photographer.
Need a personalized album made? Design it on the website below and I'll build it for you.
https://www.donahuenumismatics.com/.
Not mine, but from ebay.
I have a lot of the elongated coins, from cents to quarters that I accumulated over the years growing up. My Grandmother took me to many sites all over Georgia, North Carolina and Florida and she always had a quarter and a penny for me to run through the machine. Later on it took two quarters and now you just stick a dollar bill in most machines and it provides the coin. There are many good memories in those elongated cents.
Forget the oblonged pressed coins. When I was young and living in Florida, they used to have these machines that made extemporaneously little plastic statues of Dolphins and such. It was very cool.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mold-a-rama-archive-retro-plastic-mold-a-matic
They should have these machines at the coin shows. Throw a few Bust Halves in them and get a happy face
Here in Australia (where we don't have a coin similar in size and composition to a US penny, and where smashing a current coin of the realm flat is illegal anyway), the tourist sites that use these machines use an internal supply of zincoln-like blanks (copper-plated zinc), presumably acquired from a local metalworks rather than imported from the US. I have seen a couple of locally-made elongated coins that did use US pennies as feedstock, but a ready supply of nice clean US pennies isn't as easy to come by around here.
Here in Australia, the term "rolled coins" is perhaps more commonly used amongst collectors, mainly because one of the pioneers of the concept here in Australia was a fellow who called himself "Roll-a-penny Lenny".
Regarding the debate re: oblong vs elongated: "oblong" describes it's current shape; "elongated" describes how it became that shape, by being stretched out. Thus, while "oblong" is indeed technically correct, "elongated" is the more precise term to use when talking about these specific numismatic items that were made by taking a normal round coin and stretching it out and flattening it; "elongated coins" are thus a narrower subset of "oblong coins".
In other words, you can have an "oblong coin" which is not elongated, because it was made oblong in shape to start with. Many communion tokens are oblong or oval-shaped, for example, but they are not considered "elongated" because they were made with oval-shaped dies using oval-shaped blanks. Many early ancient coins such as this Persian silver siglos are also oblong in shape, though cannot be considered "elongated" as they were made that shape to start with.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
FWIW - it is also illegal to destroy currency in the US, but the law is rarely enforced.
blah
Destroying coins in the United States is generally illegal according to federal law. Under Title 18, Section 331 of the U.S. Code, it is a crime to mutilate, cut, deface, puncture, or perforate coins intended for circulation. The law aims to preserve the integrity of the currency system and prevent potential harm to the economy.
However, if coins are collected as numismatic items (such as rare coins), you may have more flexibility with how to handle them, as long as they are no longer intended for circulation. But it's important to consult with experts or legal authorities for specific cases.
It is good to see the facts are flying in this thread and people are soooo polite.
IN addition
https://www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/20061214-united-states-mint-moves-to-limit-exportation-melting-of-coins
18 U.S. Code § 331 - Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins
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Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or
Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 700; July 16, 1951, ch. 226, § 1, 65 Stat. 121; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)
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How current is this?
This is the part you're missing. It's not illegal unless you are doing so with the intent to commit fraud. It's not "generally illegal" as you're asserting.
Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States...
Fraudulently. If the intent is to commit fraud, it's illegal. If you're smashing pennies on the railroad tracks, nobody cares.
I think the operative word here is "fraudulently" -- Coins are altered and used for mementos, jewelry, prizes, etc. As long as it is not done with a fraudulent/illegal intent.
That is good to hear. The long arm of US law is swift and precise.
It is not currently illegal to destroy, melt or otherwise deliberately mutilate US coins in America, with the exception of 1 and 5 cent pieces as noted above; Treasury reserves the right to place such prohibitions (such as were originally in place for silver coins between 1965 and 1969), but no other such prohibitions are currently in place. America is a very unusual country in this regard; most countries outright ban the deliberate destruction of their coins.
The only mention of crimes regarding coin mutilation in the US Code is 18 USC 331, which importantly has the adverb "fraudulently" right at the front; if your mutilation of coins is "not fraudulent", then it's perfectly legal. This law is there to prevent things like the age-old practice of clipping - or, in a modern context, it's there to prevent you from shaving a few grams of gold off the edge of an AGE and selling it as an undamaged full-ounce coin.
The fact that private mutilation of coins is legal in the US explains why coin elongation machines were invented in the US in the first place. Nobody would have dared invent such a contraption in a country where doing that to a coin was actually illegal.
Banknotes are a different story, covered by different legislation (18 USC 333); you cannot deliberately mutilate or otherwise render unfit for re-issue a Federal Reserve Note or any other paper money distributed via the Federal Reserve system.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
I'm not missing any part.
You’re missing the ability or willingness to admit when you’re wrong.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Seriously Feld, did you miss your morning coffee? This is all you had to contribute to humanity this morning?
Seriously, no, I didn’t. I prefer not to make contributions to humanity, like some of yours, which amount to misinformation. Enjoy your day.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.