How did you get into elongated coins? My first elongated coin, a penny with a lion on it promoting the "Africa the Serenghetti" Omni movie, came from the Museum of Science in Boston, MA back in 1987 or so. When I traveled, I picked them up here and there because they were cheap and portable. Then one day, I noticed I had a big souvenir glass full of the things, which seemed like an awful lot...back then anyway. I jokingly (I thought) searched online for "smashed pennies" and found Kathy's Penny Page and Willie's Hitchhiker's Guide which in turn led me to the first elongated coin mailing list (now a Yahoo group) and The Elongated Collectors club.  Now, many years later, the internet is full of elongated related sites -- click on the Links icon above to visit a few.

Why would anyone think to do such terrific violence to a poor penny in the first place?  Well, I don't really know. However, it is generally accepted that ECs first started to appear at the 1893 Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. Attended machines appeared at major fairs and expositions through the late 1930s. Then, in the 1950s, individual hobbyists who owned machines and made elongateds for themselves and their friends began to worry the government would crack down on them for mutilating coins, but reassurances came directly from the Treasury, panic was averted, and the hobby really began to take off. Then in the 1980s, the first unattended, coin operated machines began to appear at amusement parks, zoos, and the like, all of which brings us to today.

Aren't you breaking the law by doing this? No. The law (18 USC, Chapter 17, Section 331) says I may not fraudulently alter, deface, mutilate, impair, diminish, falsify, scale, or lighten US coins. Nor may I fraudulently possess, pass, utter, publish, or sell, or attempt to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or bring into the US any such coins. The way I read it, the key word is "fraudulently". If I do not intend any fraud, then I have not broken the law. What does that mean? Well, I think it means simply that I may not cheat. For example, I may not change the date on a common new penny to make it appear to be a rare, and more valuable, older penny to dupe you. Nor may I, for example, shave some silver off a bunch of old quarters and then pretend they are still quarters as issued by the US Mint. In those acts, I intend fraud. On the other hand, when I elongate a coin its new shape and design have special meaning to me and other collectors, but there is no fraudulent intent.

God save the Queen('s image)! Now, don't be an ugly American and think US law is good around the world or good for every country's coins. For instance, it is illegal to elongate Canadian coins, The legend says Canada wishes to preserve the Queen's image on the coin, but when I asked the Canadian Mint about it, the representative said she could not confirm that story.    Meanwhile, machines at the Tower of London and elsewhere in England, machines require you to insert a British pence to be pressed and have a sign on them that says it has been legal to elongate coins since a change in the law in 1981.  Why would it be okay in England to deface the Queen's image, but not in Canada?  Whatever the reason, some machines in Canada don't ask you to insert a Canadian penny. Rather, the machines often have their own supplies of copper blanks or "planchets" that they use instead of coins. Similarly, Tokyo Disneyland machines also supply their own copper or nickel blanks -- reportedly to save you from having to have a pocketful of the right kind of Japanese coins.

What if I don't have the right kind of coins? Oh, and while we're on the topic of different countries coins, please be careful to put only the expected coins in a machine, e.g., a US penny in a US machine. Coins vary in diameter, width, and hardness and you can really mess up somebody else's very expensive machine and its dies with your mistake or experiment.

Do some pennies press better than others? Just like pretty much everybody else, I once thought it was better to press shiny new pennies instead of tarnished old ones. Little did I know the content of the coin varies with the year of the coin!  Now I separate my pocket change daily by composition into separate Mason jars. Just in case someone hasn't already told you, the composition of US pennies (more correctly called "one cent" coins by the numismatic minded among us) has varied over the years as follows: 

• Through 1942, pennies were mostly copper.
• In 1943, due to a wartime shortage of copper, pennies were made of steel.  They are very hard on a penny press, they "roll short" meaning you may or may not get the full design of the die, and they rust.
• From 1944 through 1981, pennies were again mostly copper.
• Be careful with pennies made in 1955.  They're mostly copper and good for pressing, but some made that year are rare and can be worth hundreds of dollars!
• In 1959 the design of the reverse of the penny changed from the so-called "wheat back" to the Lincoln Memorial.  The composition didn't change, just the design.
• Because of rising copper prices, the composition changed midway through 1982 from mostly copper to mostly zinc with a thin copper plating.  When a "new" penny is pressed, the copper plating cracks and the zinc shows through.  Some collectors like the effect, some don't, some are neutral or like to judge an EC by multiple factors and not just by the coin it was made from. For example, some collector like to roll on cents of a particular year like 1955 cents for the Disneyland 50th Anniversary coins or the current year's cents to commemorate a current event.  One warning: if you do roll on zinc cents, beware the exposed zinc will corrode and turn black if the EC is cleaned or otherwise left out in the elements. A coating of clear nail polish will help protect a zinc elongated.

How do you carry all the stuff needed for a trip to a penny machine? After a tip from the folks on the Elongated Mailing List, I started to keep several Mini M&Ms containers loaded with two quarters, a penny, two quarters, a penny, two quarters, a penny, and so on. It's not as sloppy as my prior system of just tossing pennies and quarters into a canvas pencil bag and hoping it'd all work out evenly at the machines. There's one container in my desk at my office, a couple in my car, and one in my briefcase. With these, I make periodic trips to the machines in my area to get duplicates to trade.

How do you clean an EC?  First, very old ECs probably shouldn't be cleaned as it can reduce their value.  But whether or not to do it is YOUR choice and depends on why YOU collect.  I bought some 90 year old ECs and just couldn't make out much of the detail.  I didn't want to ruin the EC, but I didn't want something I couldn't enjoy either.  So, rather than cleaning them in my usual way, I took a pencil eraser and rubbed some of the tarnish off.  I could make out the detail and the EC still looked old enough to suit me.  For all my other ECs, especially the ones I pressed myself, I like them to shine brightly.  So, I clean them with Twinkle copper cleaner and a Sonicare toothbrush (using an old head, of course). In a pinch, I'll use ketchup to clean an EC.  Last thought, just like pretty much everybody else, I made the mistake of cleaning some of my 1982 and later zinc ECs. Although the immediate blackening was interesting at first, I was shocked when I realized my Cadiz, KY, Ham Festival EC was ruined. Luckily, I met Jim, the roller of the coin, online and he was kind enough to send me a replacement. Rather than clean coins before or after rolling, some collectors buy pre-1982, bright, uncirculated (BU) pennies from a coin shop and roll only those.

What DO you DO with all of them? Although I'm never caught up, I catalog my ECs in a Microsoft Access database from which I import a lot information to this site. Once they're cleaned and cataloged, I put them in archival flips which I buy from Brent Krueger Coin Supplies. Each flip holds two ECs or one EC and a paper insert describing the EC and folds over to form a square. Friction holds the coins in place so I don't glue them, putty them, tape them, staple them, or otherwise attach them to anything. Then I put the flips into 35mm slide pages, more or less in order by country, then state, then location. Finally, the slide pages then go into Mead Five Star Zipper Binders.

If that's an elongated coin, then what's this thing called? Coins with designs such as hearts, crosses, and the like cut completely through them are called "punched" coins. You can find them at card shops glued to bookmarks. Then there are coins with raised areas that are called "domed" coins. They're hard to describe, but you can see some examples of them on Bert's site. And then there are coins with additional designs cut into them that are called "counterstrikes". I had one of these as kid that had JFK's profile above the date on a Lincoln penny. Recently I found a few more in a shop in Salem, MA that had pumpkins and witches cut above the date of Lincoln pennies.

Where can I learn more? There are a lot of very good sites with more information in "Links."  Better yet, join the club! For a mere one dollar a month, twelve bucks a year (fifty cents a month, six bucks a year if you're a kid), you, too, can be a proud member of The Elongated Collectors (aka TEC). You'll get a periodic newsletter with free coins, a nifty membership card, and the chance to make invaluable contacts with some of the most remarkable people the world has to offer. A lot of these people are on the Internet, too, and you can sign up for their free Yahoo discussion group. Oh, and there are also some books and pamphlets on the subject of elongated coins. Several are out of print, but used copies can sometimes be found, e.g., in the ads of TEC News.

A Thought for Your Pennies, by Charlotte M. Childs, 1937.

Elongated Rolled Out Cents by Lenard L. Babin, 1961.

The Elongated Collector by Dottie Dow, 1965. (Out of Print)

A Tribute to John F. Kennedy by Angelo R. Rosato, 1968.

The Elongated Coin and Supplement To The Elongated Coins by Lloyd E. Wagaman, 1973 and 1975 respectively. (Out of Print)

Elongated Coins by Angelo R. Rosato, 1974. (Out of Print)

Today's Elongateds by Lee Martin, 1974. (Out of Print)

The Unlisted Directory by Callander and Wagaman, 1976.

Yesterday's Elongateds by Lee Martin & Dottie Dow, 1981.  (Recently republished by and available from TEC!)

The Rolled Coins by Chester M. Rogers, 1987.

The Rolled Coins by Chester M. Rogers and revised by Don Wilkinson, 1989.

A Collector's Guide to the Unlisteds by Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., 1994.

The Rolled Coins by Chester M. Rogers and revised by Angelo R. Rosato, 1996.

Encyclopedia of the Modern Elongated: A Complete and Authentic Description of All Modern Elongateds, 1960-1978 by Angelo A. Rosato, 1991.

Reroll - Restrike by Angelo R. Rosato, 1992.

Evaluating Elongated Coins by Angelo R. Rosato, 1992.

Elongated Coin Productions by Angelo R. Rosato, 1996.

House of Elongated Steel Die Rolls by Angelo R. Rosato, 1996.

Cross Reference Directory of Elongated Codes by Angelo R. Rosato, 1998.

Supplement to the Encyclopedia of the Modern Elongated: A Complete and Authentic Description of Modern Elongated Coins 1978-1995 by Angelo A. Rosato, August 1998.

Dillard's Elongated Coins by Angelo R. Rosato, 2001.

Cross Directory of Codes (A Complete Cross Reference of Codes Ascribed in the Encyclopedia of the Modern Elongated & Yesterday's Elongateds), By Angelo A. Rosato.

A Guide To The Elongated Coins Of The Disneyland Resort, by Lou Smith, 2003.