Geopennies

[+The Gowen Family]

My husband and I have decided as a signature item we want to have smashed pennies. We found a good deal on a machine that would allow us to make them, we thought it would be a good idea to offer to make theses for other people. We are wanting to know if there would be any intrest in this. We have a basic website up at www.geopenny.com. We are still working on prices, and the rest of the details. If you are intrested you can find our contact information at the website.

[+New England n00b]

Mount Washington Observatory has one of these machines at their base. I got a bunch for my nieces/nephews. I thought they were kinda cool...

 

Can you use material other than copper/steel, and do they have to be the same diameter as a penny (ie a quarter sized steel slug or something.

 

Great idea, though - hope to see more photo's on the website and get a feel for what you can do!

[+The Gowen Family]

We can do from pennies up to tokens like you would get at the arcade or slots. We are hoping to have the prices and more information up soon.

[AC Student]

Looks like a very cool idea.

[SBPhishy]

Yup. that would be cool. I already have my sig item, but If I didnt, and those were cheap enough, I would definitely get some.

[+Marky]

My avatar is from the original artwork of the design we submitted to the company that made our smashed penny sig item. You can see a picture of the result at: mj.geocoin.net. To have them made, it was $350 for 1000 pennies. This included the manufacturing fee of the custom die and the labor of smashing 1000 pennies using uncirculated pre-1982 pennies.

 

I'd interested in knowing more about what you are thinking of offering. Are you saying that you will have a generic die made and then will smash sets of pennies for people? Or are you offering to let people have their own dies made that fit your machine and then you will smash pennies for them? Or is it something else?

 

Oh, I'd also like to know what "a good deal" is. We had contemplated buying our own machine, but couldn't find one for less than $2000. If you have a source for these that is a lot cheaper, we might be interested in having our own machine.

 

--Marky

[Fakk 2]

I would also be interested in knowing if this is a custom design or a generic design that you offer. And also where you found your press. I been looking all over even at e-bay which I hate. And not finding anything reletively decent in price. (Course I am also cheap). I have been saving up pennies from my birth-year to add to the item when I finally get some printed.

[+Monkey Toes]

Destroying money is a federal offense.

Edited March 19, 2004 by MonkeyToes108

[+Polycron]

It is perfectly legal to make elongated issues on U.S. coins. SECTION 331, TITLE 18 of the U.S. Code prohibits the fraudulent alteration and mutilation of U.S. coins. However, the statute does not prohibit mutilation of coins if done without fraudulent intent or use.

 

Note that making elongates (smashed pennies) is legal for US coins....I can't speak for coins from other countries such as Canada.

[GrandpaCannon]

Destroying money is a federal offense.

Only if you still try to pass it off as money. You are free to destroy any money (U.S.) that you want as long as you don't try to say that it is still leagl tender.

[+Right Wing Wacko]

Destroying money is a federal offense.

Only if you still try to pass it off as money. You are free to destroy any money (U.S.) that you want as long as you don't try to say that it is still leagl tender.

Not totally true:

 

Sec. 331. Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins

 

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs,

diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at

the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law

made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the

United States; or

 

Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced,

mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened-- Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five

years, or both.

 

Sec. 333. Mutilation of national bank obligations

 

Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or

unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill,

draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking

association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System,

with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of

debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned

not more than six months, or both.

[+RJFerret]

Note the word, "fraudulently". As a mint official said on one of the Discover/TLC shows, "your money is your property and you can do whatever you want with it."

 

Enjoy,

 

Randy

 

(Oh yeah, it was a show featuring paper money being modified as artwork...)

[+Monkey Toes]

[+Marky]

Destroying money is a federal offense.

Only if you still try to pass it off as money. You are free to destroy any money (U.S.) that you want as long as you don't try to say that it is still leagl tender.

Not totally true:

 

Sec. 331. Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins

 

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs,

diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at

the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law

made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the

United States; or

 

Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced,

mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened-- Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five

years, or both.

The statue, Title 18, section 331, is confusing. It does prohibits fraudulent alteration and mutilation of coins. But, you can mutilate a coin if your intentions are not fraudulent, ie, not to us the coin as money. It is perfectly legal to do so. It's also okay to make artwork out of them (i.e. cut them up to make jewelry items, etc.).

 

--Marky

[+Renegade Knight]

Interesting concept. I'm going to start saving for geocoins one of these days. Obsticles are my avitar. It's a photo of a sculpture that I liked and modified slightly and I'd like to find the original artist and ask permission.

 

Smashed pennies would need to beat the price of the "real" coins which can be fairly resonable if you buy enough. That shouldn't be too hard since your raw material cost is a penny. After that it's dies, electricity and depreciation.

 

I'd be interested since it would be nice to have the higher cost coin as a special signature item for caches that catch your fancy and the regular one for everything else. I wish it could be round though.

[+Right Wing Wacko]

Note the word, "fraudulently". As a mint official said on one of the Discover/TLC shows, "your money is your property and you can do whatever you want with it."

 

Enjoy,

 

Randy

 

(Oh yeah, it was a show featuring paper money being modified as artwork...)

That was actually my point. It is ok to do this with coins as long as you are not doing it for fraudulent purposes. On the other hand, defacing currency for ANY reason is not allowed.

 

The owner of the WheresGeorge website ended up spending quite a bit of time explaining to the Secret Service how his site does not advocate defacement of currency. After this meeting, he had to stop selling the stamps that WheresGeorge users were using in order to keep them of his back.

[+The Gowen Family]

OK! I am going to try and answer everyones questions as bet I can.

 

Marky: The machine we found was right at 2000.00(brand new machine), which did not included a four image die. We would offer both the generic die and custom made dies and then smash pennies for people. I hate to say it but nothing is ever free, we would have diffrent pricings for diffrent amount of coins. We plan on keeping it worth doing for others who might want them, but still be able to cover costs of things. I am not sure where my husband found the machine, you can e-mail him and ask.

 

Renagade: We have also have a dragon as our avatar and when we e-mail the guy he did not think it should be a problem. You might go to our site and e-mail my husband(Tech Support) and see what he thinks about it if your intrested in doing something for a GeoCoin.

 

I have read post where people were spending 500.00 to get signature items, we don't plan on chargeing so much that you are not getting your money's worth. My husband plans on haveing the pricing list up on the site soon. I have gotten several e-mails about doing coins for people, generic or custom.

Edited March 19, 2004 by The Gowen Family

[+The Gowen Family]

Just an update. We now have prices up on the site of what it would cost if we made the smashed pennies for people. The site is www.geopenny.com, parts of it we are still working on, but the prices are up now.

Edited March 22, 2004 by The Gowen Family

[+Marky]

Good job on the site. Your prices are reasonably competitive. You need to mention shipping in there so people can get an accurate comparison. I'm sure there are lot of people that may be interested.

 

--Marky

[+The Gowen Family]

We hope to be up and running in 2-3 weeks. We just have to wait back to hear on how long it takes to ship the machine and dies. We have some pennies in stock to press as soon as the machine and dies come in. If you think you might want some of the pennies, you still have time to get in a custom order and have the die come back with our order of dies.

Edited March 26, 2004 by The Gowen Family

[+greengecko]

I received a photo in an email of a guy who is doing 20 years in federal prison for smashing a penny with a hammer so it must be true!

[+Midway Cafe]

Here is a variation on the smashed coins. Coin Shrinking The only catch is that you need a lot of power.

[jeanneisme]

Count me in. I am looking for a signature item.

[+fly46]

My opinion is that the law says current currency, and since people don't spend pressed pennies... these quit being currency once their pressed...

 

And like the government cares if they backed a penny that is no longer being spent and thus that they no longer have to stand behind and back monitarily.

[+Red Clover]

My thought on the "federal offense" deal is this... if it was illegal would every theme park, zoo, and historic location have these machines? No. Yet, I have seen and used them at: Jacksonville, FL Zoo, Atlanta GA Zoo, Stone Mountain State park, GA, Six Flags over GA, Disney World etc etc etc

[+Team Flying Dachshund]

I would definately order a bunch of these. I think the pennies would be a little booring you could make them out of stainless aluminium. The would virtualy not rust and aluminium is cheap. If structural integrity is an issue throw some iron in there. How much do you think you would sell them for? I want a Tesla coil its uses seem to be endless.

Edited March 30, 2004 by Team ClandestinePenguin

[+The Gowen Family]

We are also in the prosses of making sure it is OK with the us mint, to offer the 50 state quarters on a pressed penny, nickle or quarter. We will be starting out with the quarters that are already out, till we have all 50 quarters.

[+AmishHacker]

What is the difference between Pre 1982 Pennies and others

[+AmishHacker]

What is the difference between Pre 1982 Pennies and others

I think I found my own answer

 

pre-1982 pennies has a mass of 3.1 grams. (However, pennies made after 1982 is about 2.5 grams). ...

 

Right?

[+AmishHacker]

What is the difference between Pre 1982 Pennies and others

I think I found my own answer

 

pre-1982 pennies has a mass of 3.1 grams. (However, pennies made after 1982 is about 2.5 grams). ...

 

Right?

Ohh and if I went to the website...

 

Before 1982 pennies had a metal content of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

 

The exception to this was in 1942 during World War II. There was a shortage of copper and pennies for that year were made of steel coated zinc.

 

Some time in mid 1982 the price of copper went up and the US Mints changed the ratio of metal in the pennies. Today pennies are made of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. They are also 20% lighter.

 

 

OK STUPID ME

[+Nurse Dave]

I would definately order a bunch of these. I think the pennies would be a little booring you could make them out of stainless aluminium. The would virtualy not rust and aluminium is cheap. If structural integrity is an issue throw some iron in there. How much do you think you would sell them for? I want a Tesla coil its uses seem to be endless.

Or 1943 steel pennies

[+flask]

i hand pound my signature pennies and hand engrave my name on them. looks very like my signature in the book.

[+The Gowen Family]

For cachers that think the pennies would be boring, we offer nickles and quarters as well as tokens that are brass colored. We are hoping to also offer gold colored tokens as well. It all depends on what we can find and still make it worth your's and our's cost.

[+The Gowen Family]

We have gotten several PM's from people asking about prices and dies and other stuff. We have an order in for a die that has our geocaching and the geopenny.com info on it, we are just waiting to get it in. If someone wants to order an die, we can submit it with the order we are getting ready to place for two more dies. It takes about 2-3 weeks to get a die back, so please keep that in mind. My husband is the person that you would send any image questions to, that information is found on the website. www.geopenny.com

[+The Gowen Family]

We are also still in talks with Geocaching.com, to use their logo on our coins. We hope to finish working out the details, in time to send the image in with our order. We are getting ready to place the order for more dies sometime this week.

[+The Gowen Family]

We now have permission to use the geocaching logo, for the elongated coins we will be offering. Mu husband will be sending the die maker the e-mail with the images in it today or tomorrow. The die maker did say he was a bit busy, so the turnaround time is now 3-5 weeks.

[+Marky]

That's cool. So, we could get a custom die made which would have our art on one side and the GC logo on the other?

 

--Marky

[+The Gowen Family]

YES! you could get your design and the GC logo on the other side. Or if you have two images you wanted, we could put that on a coin for you. My husband has done a fair amount of research and we have tried to make our prices fair for all party's.

Edited April 5, 2004 by The Gowen Family

[+The Gowen Family]

Things are coming along nicely, we should have our machine and dies in the next couple of weeks. We can't wait to try it out and leave our coins in some caches. If people are intrested we will keep them updated by our website and by posting here.

[+Touchstone]

I don't know if this has been asked yet or not, or even if it's reasonable Your site talks about serial numbers on the backside of the coins. Are you going to offer some way of tracking these coins on your site? I know with the California Geocoins they tried to get tracking on GC.com, but that didn't get approved by TPTB. We track those coins on Marky's site (what a guy )

 

Just a thought anyway. Could charge a little extra for the pennies to offer the tracking service on your site.

 

Looks like some pretty cool pennies. I think I'll put in an order for a few.

[+The Gowen Family]

Shipping date has been held up a bit, we should get the machine no later than May 15th or so the guy says. We will if people are wanting to be kept up to date, keep posting things here. Thanks for the intrest.

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