Have you ever heard of an elongated penny?
Chances are you may have actually made one if you’ve ever visited a tourist hot spot or roadside attraction.
An elongated penny is simply a penny that has been squashed in a machine, producing a design on the coin and making the coin oval shaped and longer than it used to be.
Elongated pennies have been popular since the 1893 Columbian Exposition and, since then, have been made into hundreds of designs.
Elongated coins are fun to collect and, often, don’t cost much either to make or buy. There is even a museum dedicated to elongated pennies.
It is common for an elongated penny to cost no more than $1 to make in person. Many older elongated pennies can be bought for less than $5 or $10 from a elongated penny dealer.
Elongated pennies typically fall into the realm of coin collecting called exonumia, or novelty coin collecting.
I’m the Coin Editor here at TheFunTimesGuide. My love for coins began when I was 11 years old. I primarily collect and study U.S. coins produced during the 20th century.
I’m a member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA) and the Numismatic Literary Guild (NLG) and have won multiple awards from the NLG for my work as a coin journalist. I’m also the editor at the Florida United Numismatists Club (FUN Topics magazine), and author of Images of America: The United States Mint in Philadelphia (a book that explores the colorful history of the Philadelphia Mint). I’ve contributed hundreds of articles for various coin publications including COINage, The Numismatist, Numismatic News, Coin Dealer Newsletter, Coin Values, and CoinWeek.
I’ve authored nearly 1,000 articles here at The Fun Times Guide to Coins (many of them with over 50K shares), and I welcome your coin questions in the comments below!