The first Hungarian elongated coin site.

What is this?

What are elongated coins?

Elongated coins are stretched and flattened metal coins, often money, embossed with another design. Such coins were first created at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. They have become popular and can be found at tourist attractions, museums, sporting- and other events and often serve as memorabilia that one can take home to remember a place and time.

How are they made?

A standard small denomination coin - 1 or 2 cent in the US, 5 Ft in Hungary - is placed into a machine-press consisting of two steel rollers that apply around 22 t/cm² of pressure on the coin which makes it stretch in one direction and become thinner as well. One of the rollers is engraved with a design that imprints a new image on the coin as it passes through the machine. The manufacturing of such a steel roller requires incredibly precise work and expertise, so no wonder such tooling is expensive.

About Us

How our story began

My wife and I visited the US in 2000. One of the things we noticed were these interesting machines at many of the tourist attractions, that pressed 1 cent coins into souvenir coins after inserting 50 cents or 1 dollar.

The first location happened to be the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco.

So we thought: what if we tried this at home?

After arriving back home, we wrote to the Hungarian National Bank, but were turned down. However, not much later we learned that:

"The Government Regulation No. 218/1999 (XII.28.) repealed the previous provision that aimed to prevent intentional damage or destruction of banknotes and coins. Therefore, there is currently no legal obstacle to the transformation of coins or banknotes."

This meant that we could order the first machine in September 2002. The US-made automated (electric motor driven), 3-die machine was installed at Tropicarium, a unique sea aquarium located in one of the shopping malls in Budapest.

Lívia, Tibor and their first penny press - 2002

The story goes on...

The machines became popular so we could expand our business!

For example Csodák Palotája Science Centre – and further locations –, got 4-die hand cranked presses, as customer feedback was that they, especially kids, enjoy pressing the coins "by hand" much better!

This was a real win-win-win situation:

It's good to see the happy faces, as the fresh "hot-pressed" coins are removed from the machine,
a nice visitor experience and income for the locations,
and for us as well. 🙂

Excited kids surround a coin press machine in Vienna

Coin Machine Types

"Hand-cranked" or automatic?

The latter can produce more coins per minute, but hand-cranked machines allow for a much greater sense of participation in the process.

Elongated Coin Press

an elongated coin is an innovative, interactive and cheap advertising media,
the location gains income from advertising,
the machine takes up only around 0,5m² of space,
there's no investment risk, we provide the machine and know-how,
we also take care of maintenance,
the coin press generates a steady income, which your location receives a % from.

Tropicarium - Double the Fun! - coin press machines

Coin Dispenser, Collectible "Gold" Coin Machine

exclusive, golden tone coins are aimed at more serious collectors,
there are countries where pressing coins of the local currency are prohibited. Pre-made coins make it possible for visitors to take home tangible memories from such places as well.

Locations

Where can you find our coin machines?

Or coin machines can be found in Hungary, as well as abroad. Besides permanently installed machines, our service is popular at events, exhibitions and other temporary amusements.

Collectors may find our "retired" machines interesting too, because those coins are no longer pressed.