WHITHER SQUISHED PENNIES?

 

Carissa Gooding, a pressed-penny collector in Columbus, Ohio, who makes very satisfying- to-watch TikToks in which she cleans souvenir pennies with a Q-tip and metal polish while telling stories about where she pressed the coins, recently had a self-described "penny mental breakdown."

She found an old pressed penny from the Cincinnati Museum Center among her things, which led her to drive two hours to the museum, both to see a Barbie exhibit and to check out the machine—but it was nowhere to be found. An attendant told her they'd gotten rid of it last year, a result of the cost of maintenance compared to the money they actually make from the pennies, not to mention the imminent end of penny minting. "I was freaking out about this silly little penny press," she told me. "After that, I went home and was like, I have to collect every single penny."

In May, Donald Trump announced that in 2026,the U.S. Mint will cease production of the penny, one of which costs 3.69 cents to make. What will come of the good old-fashioned American vacation practice of pancaking our smallest monetary denomination? The machines have become a mainstay in tourist locations such as zoos, museums, theme parks, and historical attractions, and the coins usually feature designs of things you can see at the sites (the facades of buildings, zoo animals, roller coasters, spaceships, artworks— the options are endless). Though they've become more widespread and DIY in the past half century, pressed pennies have been around for more than 100 years. The first one is said to have been created for the World's Columbian Exposition, a fair in Chicago, in 1893. It's only now, in the twilight year of the penny, that machines for penny pressing—aka penny squishing, penny smashing, coin elongating—seem to be at risk. Voracious collectors are, perhaps counterintuitively, looking forward to it.

In addition to being some of the cheapest souvenirs, pressed pennies boast a community of exonumists, the technical name for these enthusiastic collectors. These hobbyists share photos and machine locations; they mail pressed pennies to other collectors around the country; they build penny chandeliers and set up elaborate displays for their hoards. And while many feel somewhat wistful about the end of the penny, they aren't too concerned that the practice will die out. In fact, it might even be made more special by the coin's impending rarity.

Gooding is not so worried about Trump's order having an effect, but she's still concerned that the machines will start falling out of favor with the destinations that host them. In the meantime, she plans to take advantage of the ones still in use and visit all the penny squishers in the state. Her most recent sojourn was to the Ohio State Reformatory, where much of The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.("I'm sorry," I asked, "even prisons have penny pressers?" Gooding confirmed.) Like many other pressing fanatics, she has experienced places she might not have visited otherwise, thanks to the draw of cranking out a new elongated coin.

"I'm not someone who necessarily seeks out a museum," she said, "so it forces me to go learn about the history of where I grew up—or birds or whatever."

To read the complete article (subscription required), see:
Squished Dreams (https://slate.com/life/2025/08/pennies-trump-pressed-collector.html)

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