Flat Pennies - Click Here to go to The Penny Machine Company for Souvenir Penny Machines

The Long and Short of Flat Pennies

Back when I was a child, we loved going to my grandmother's house in Cleveland Ohio. She lived not too far from the crosstown train tracks. Trains came by nearly on the hour, and when merely standing close to the tracks as the train lumbered by no longer thrilled, we got bolder and more adventurous. We would place objects on the track, wondering what the wheels would do to them as it sped by. This was my first exposure to flat pennies. Little did we realize that the train wheels rendered the pennies very flat and almost unreadable.

I had learned my lesson that day from my father, who informed me that sometimes trains would derail if certain objects were put on the tracks. He mentioned railroad spikes and flat rocks, but not coins. So, I made certain to keep the dangerous objects off of the track, and started a collection of flat pennies . Sometimes, they would be cut in half, other times they would be very flat and oblong. Call it cheap entertainment, but it was a way to make a dollar or two selling these coins.

Fast forward twenty to thirty years, and my oh my, how things have changed. Instead of risking life, limb, and certain parental grounding for a week to assure a steady supply, electrical and mechanical machines do all the hard work for us. Insert a clean penny and some quarters, and in 30 seconds or less, out pops a shiny flat penny with a very long-faced Lincoln, or a picture of a costumed character, or a panorama of some entertainment resort. While I miss the peril of going head to head with a crosstown train, it's much safer and quicker to plunk down 50 cents to a dollar to build my flat pennies collection. Go to The Penny Machine Company to see how you can too.