Smashed Souvenir Pennies

Stupid thought came into my head earlier this evening does anybody know how many different squashed penny designs there are in the park? I know they're scattered around and never paid much attention to them unless my kids asked for them but creative ideas came into my head and now I'm wondering where all the penny machines are. I know there's one in the arcade and I'm thinking the museum too. I'm sure there has to be more.

Most of the large gift shops have them. - Dinosaur's Alive, Gatekeeper, Valravn, and Maverick gift shops at the exits, then there's Park Plaza, Pagoda, Cedar Creek Trading Co., Speed Zone and maybe Snoopy Boutique. Most of them have three unique designs like a ride located nearby or park logo or something. There's probably even more than that.

I think there's one by the MF lockers.

Here's a website for that- http://www.pennycollector.com/Details.aspx?location=3785

I was keeping him up to date for a while. Most of those are my photos. The more recent stuff isn't.

I had a heck of a time finding one at carowinds that just said carowinds. I settled for a dominator logo as I liked it so much, but it was for someone else. Wish I had known of the handy dandy penny website back then.

Something that never crossed my mind until now; isn't it illegal to deface US currency?

Augustmueller said:

Something that never crossed my mind until now; isn't it illegal to deface US currency?

http://www.parkpennies.com/pressed-penny/penny-pressing-legal.htm

I guess I got a new thing to start collecting !

Rusty said:

Augustmueller said:

Something that never crossed my mind until now; isn't it illegal to deface US currency?

Just read up on this, and provided there is no fraudulent intent involved, pressing coins for souvenirs is perfectly legal.

went to cp Friday evening,never noticed the machines until this thread,looked at the machines,insert 2 quarters and a penny. Where else can you get a CP souvenir for 51 cents,time to start taking quarters and pennies to the park !

In Vegas you can do .50 pieces and silver dollars. But that's a big high-rollin deal up in there.

I used to collect pennies, and Dennis Urban is right, it's a cute, affordable, and packable souvenir. I would lean toward the ones with the park logo, and occasionally a ride that I really liked. My problem was that I didn't keep them in very good order. You can get the little books to stick them in and I had a few but the pennies always wound up somewhere else. I even found a few when I cleaned out the trap in my washing machine. So, there ya go. It's a collectible hobby only for the organized.

My kids have a few from other places but who knows where they actually are. One of my friends bought her son the books made to keep them because she's really organized and her house is way cleaner than mine...my husband had made me a penny bracelet years ago for our anniversary and one of the other coins he included on it was an old CP arcade token because the park has been a major thing for us (was there on our wedding day, rode Gemini in my dress) and I was thinking it might be neat to make one with the park smashed pennies.

This probably can't be answered here but I'll put it out anyway and probably be answering it myself in the future.

Pennies 1981 and earlier were copper,1983 and later were copper plated Zinc,1982 was a transitional year and both varieties were made that year. The question is 'which variety produces better smashed pennies'. I'll be taking quarters and both varieties next time to CP and report back.

I used to save my shiny pennies to take to the machines. Plus if you know how to put it in you can see a ghostly image of Abe on the smooth backside of the pressed coin.

Dennis Urban said:

The question is 'which variety produces better smashed pennies'. I'll be taking quarters and both varieties next time to CP and report back.

The true copper pennies are more consistent in color when pressed. I think I have most of them from Cedar Point, with the exception of those that are new this year.

The pre 1981 pennies have none of the "silver" color in them so they have a straight consistent color. With them being so old they have a much darker shade to them. When you smash the new ones they are very bright and shiny but one side of a ridge has a two tone look quite a bit. That being said my daughters love doing it with the new pennies because there so bright.

Due to the silver streaking, I only use pre-1982 pennies. They're still readily available, for those of you that use physical currency :-) At one time I considered buying rolls of 1943 steel pennies just so I would have a more unique collection. That never materialized.

Because most older pennies are dirty I take mine to a wire wheel at work to get it as clean as possible before pressing. They still have enough dirt on them to get the ghost images mentioned above.

I was recently at Kentucky Kingdom. They have a couple different types of machines. One in particular was inside the gift shop next to the Angry Birds 4D theater. It had 8 designs in it, a digital screen, and the pennies were already in there. They were 2 for $1 or all 8 for $3. I got all 8. The nostalgic side of me hates to see the crank machines go, but the practical side of me likes the better consistency in the automated machines. I don't like the idea of not being able to use my own pennies for the copper vs zinc reason. Additionally the machine at Kentucky Kingdom must have had brand-spankin-new pennies in it, because there wasn't any ghost images on them at all.

Displayed below is my collection. The top 2 books are mostly Cedar Point. Of the 71 pennies in the top 2 books, 61 are unique Cedar Point designs. Many have been retired. 7 are doubles (from purchasing collections) The bottom left book has 8 Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, 2 Six Flags Ohio, and 13 Geauga Lake (some old and some newish). The bottom right has 17 unique Sea World pennies and 4 doubles.

I also have the 12 available souvenir tokens from Cedar Point. In addition to the 2 locations mentioned on pennycollector.com, there is also one inside the Dinosaurs Alive gift shop.

It's been a while since I mapped out all the machines and got an accurate listing of what they all contain. Yes, they do change occasionally. Sometimes they just move them around. I didn't realize until earlier this year that there was a Rougarou penny. The one I found was located in the machine inside the arcade. The photo still displayed Mantis. Going to the website today made me realize I had no idea there was a new machine by the Millennium Force lockers and that it is apparently a crank style? And had 3 new designs that I need! Every other machine in the park is push button automation. I will be doing that on my next visit. Most of them haven't moved in quite a while. Though, if you want an official list, they used to have the information at Guest Services.

The big change this year was one being added/relocated to the Valravn Gift Shop and then quickly relocated next to the Valravn lockers. If it was relocated, I assume it was the one that was located outside Shoot the Rapids.

My goodness. Someone's awfully serious.
:)

I intend to get THAT serious,but 2 of each,one for my collection and one for trading material when a particular 'press' is retired. As a past coin collector I have very many of the pre-82,both dark and about uncirculated. I've been saving them because of the copper value. My first test will be with 4,dark pre-82,shiny pre-82,dark post-82,shiny post-82. I'll post a pic of the differences.