What is an elongated coin?
Elongateds are coins or blank planchets that travel through a machine called a jeweler’s mill, which have mirror image designs cut into steel rollers, similar to wringers on an old-fashioned washing machine. These are run between the rollers under tremendous pressure – around 44,000 PSI – commonly referred to as “about 22 tons of pressure”, which presses the coin into the die and due to the immense pressure simultaneously stretches the coin into an oval shape. This also generates a bit of heat, and the resulting coin is quite warm for a few seconds. The first elongated coins, or pressed pennies, were at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, Illinois in 1892-1893 (also known as the World’s Fair). Someone even rolled a $3 gold piece in this machine – and it sold on eBay for several thousand dollars! Elongated coins come in all denominations (some people even run them on tokens and foreign coins), with the penny being the most common. With its start as a souvenir at World’s Fa
