Collecting 101
A coin or a tap, and a crank. Pressed coins are the cheapest souvenir in any gift shop, and the hobby has more to it than most people expect. This page covers which pennies press well, what to carry, and the handful of things collectors wish someone had told them on day one.
Which pennies press best
The metal in a U.S. cent changed in 1982, and the difference shows the moment the coin goes through the rollers.
| Minted | Metal | How it presses |
|---|---|---|
| 1909 to 1942, 1944 to 1962 | 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc | Clean, warm color. Polishes well. |
| 1943 | Zinc-coated steel | Skip it. Too hard on the die, and the coin rusts. |
| 1962 to 1982 | 95% copper, 5% zinc | The collector favorite. Solid copper all the way through. |
| 1982 to 2025 | Copper-plated zinc | The plating splits and gray zinc shows through as silver streaks. Tarnishes dark. Longer tail. |
1982 itself was struck both ways. A kitchen scale settles it: a copper cent weighs 3.1 grams, a zinc one 2.5.
Coin shops sell rolls of common-date pre-1982 cents for a few cents each, and bank rolls still turn up plenty of coppers for anyone willing to sort. Keep in mind that a shiny uncirculated cent gives a flat, featureless back on the finished penny. A little wear is fine.
Pennies after 2025
The U.S. Mint struck its last circulating pennies in November 2025. The coin stays legal tender and billions remain in circulation, so machines keep working exactly as before. Copper cents were already getting harder to find, and that will continue. A jar set aside now will press for years. The newest VENU+ machines take contactless pay and press a copper blank they supply themselves, so no penny is needed at all. Classic machines still take coins.
What to carry
- For coin machines, pre-stacked sets of quarters and a penny in a small screw-top container. A prescription bottle holds a dozen sets.
- More quarters than seems reasonable. Hotel front desks will usually swap bills for rolls if asked a day ahead.
- A collector book, or paper to wrap finished pennies in. Never put a rubber band directly on the coins; it leaves marks that do not come off.
- A pen. Writing the location on the wrapper at the machine saves a lot of guessing later.
Getting the date to show
Load the penny with the heads side facing away from the quarters. The design presses into the tails side and the mint year usually survives on the back of the finished coin. Plenty of collectors pick the year on purpose: a birth year, an anniversary, or a hull number at a battleship museum.
Long tails and off-center designs
Both are normal. The left edge of the design always sits at the edge of the penny because of the catch notch that guides the coin through. The tail on the right depends on the machine's pressure and on the coin. Copper presses shorter, zinc longer. A design that runs off the penny entirely is a machine alignment issue, and a report helps the next collector. More in the FAQ.
Pennies from other countries
Canadian cents from before 1997 are nearly pure copper and press beautifully, with one catch: it is illegal to deface coins in Canada, so they are for use elsewhere. British pennies are fine to press in the UK. Euro cents are copper-plated steel and behave like post-1982 U.S. coins. The FAQ has the detail on each.