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Elongated Coin Collecting is Growing Every Day

An elongated coin is a coin that has been pressed into a flat, oval shape and imprinted with a new design. They are called elongateds, and usually made from pennies. These items are made to commemorate historic events, personal achievements and other special occasions, and they are often available as souvenirs at parks, zoos and such facilities. Collecting pressed coins is a popular hobby, and certain vintage designs have fetched large sums of money from collectors. Some people collect pressed coins with any design and others prefer theme items such as those commemorating political campaigns, sports events and so forth.

The first elongated coin was a pressed penny created to commemorate the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1901 the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, issued elongated pennies designed by Charles Damm, who is now recognized as the first designer of elongated coins. Charles Damm's Pan American Exposition elongateds are now highly-coveted collectors' items. The practice of elongating coins for use as souvenirs at cultural expositions continued in 1904 at the first World's Fair held in St Louis in 1904. Collectors now refer to these early commemorative elongateds as "oldies," and they are the icons of the genre.

While presses for making elongated coins are now affordable for the average person, this has not diminished the enthusiasm for collecting these coins. In fact, the increased availability of the pressing equipment has caused a proliferation of privately issued designs that has fed the current collecting craze. One of the major sources of elongated coin information and equipment for pressing coins is The Penny Machine Company. Their professionally-engraved dies create crisp, vividly detailed images of exceptional quality. They have made elongateds for the Oakland Zoo, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and others.