(NEXSTAR) — Picking up a souvenir, whether for yourself or as a gift, can feel daunting at times: brightly colored t-shirts, glossy coffee mugs, keychains bearing your name, the ever-abundant shot glasses.

Sometimes you want something simple, with an affordable price tag that’s small enough to fit in your pocket. 

Enter the pressed (or elongated) penny. 

You’ve likely seen penny pressing machines before, whether in Disney or at SeaWorld, at zoos or national parks, or at any number of tourist attractions. 

The elongated coins are relatively simple to make. In older machines, you insert a penny (and at least a quarter, if not more) and crank a handle, making the penny thin and imprinting it with a design of your choice. More modern machines ask you to swipe your card as it supplies the soon-to-be-squashed coin for you. 

The first coins impressed with new designs are believed to have been produced during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (though the Pittsburgh Post reported that people were creating their own elongated coins by placing change along the railroad track as the train transporting a massive gun to the fair traveled through their towns). The Numismatic Guaranty Company says there were six machines throughout the fairgrounds in Chicago that charged visitors five cents for their souvenir, plus the coin they wanted to press.

Pennies primarily became the coin of choice for presses during the 1901 and 1904 World’s Fairs, according to the NGC. A collection of elongated coins from these expositions, as well as those held at later events, sold for $161 in 2006, Heritage Auctions records show. Five elongated coins from the 1893 fair sold for $184 in the same year.

After more than 130 years, the future of the pressed penny may not seem as bright as it did to those who stumbled upon them during the World’s Fair in Chicago. The U.S. has, of course, decided it will no longer produce its one-cent coin, prompting shortages at grocery stores, gas stations, and even the post office. 

Those within the elongated penny collecting community, however, aren’t as worried as you may expect. 

“Over the years, the hobby has adapted as needed, and I suspect it will adapt again,” Cindy Calhoun, president of The Elongated Collectors, recently explained to Nexstar via email. TEC was established more than 60 years ago, serving as “the official collectors organization for elongated coin enthusiasts.”

Calhoun pointed to 1982, when the penny’s composition became primarily zinc with a touch of copper. While you might not notice the difference, elongated collectors quickly noticed that these pennies would produce a gray or black tarnish when pressed, making older pennies more attractive to those looking to smush the coins. 

There are still believed to be more than 300 billion pennies in circulation, though companies that provide businesses with rolls have had a hard time getting their hands on them. If those pennies aren’t being spent or deposited, it’s difficult to get them moving around. 

This may not be a problem for the penny presses that depend on you having the penny, but it’s less than ideal for machines that pre-load the coin for elongating. 

If penny press manufacturers are making changes in response to the end of penny production, Calhoun expressed hope that they’ll turn to pre-loading copper blanks or allow customers to insert their own copper cents. Or, she added, they could turn to other denominations, like quarters and dimes, as visitors to the 1893 World Fair were able to use. 

The Penny Press Machine Company, based in Minnesota, told KMSP in March 2025 that it could transition to copper tokens in its machines, as Calhoun suggested. This could give way to more penny presses collecting electronic payment, instead of a few physical coins. 

The transition to card payment systems may not be easy for everyone. Machines located in areas without outlets, for example, could suffer, and transactions at pre-loaded machines could be subject to sales tax, Matthew Sengbusch told SFGate. He oversees more than 40 penny pressers in and around San Francisco.  

Nonetheless, new penny machines have been reported throughout the U.S., according to TEC’s tracker. That includes presses in Grand Canyon National Park and at a cheese store in Wisconsin. Another interactive map overseen by collectors reports the locations of more than 3,300 press machines in the U.S.

Some collectors on Reddit say they’ve stockpiled pennies (one user specifically noted they have “pre-1982 pennies”) to continue to fund their hobby, “so long as the machines stick around.”

For an additional bit of comfort to elongated penny collectors, Canada did away with its one-cent coin more than a decade ago, and you can still find penny press machines within the country.

“I believe the hobby will adapt and we will continue to collect and enjoy our elongateds,” said Calhoun.