THE PENNY PRESS IS HERE TO STAY

Robert Hoff was amazed the first time he saw a coin press machine in action in the 1970s. Hoff was in his twenties when a person passed him while carrying the machine and watched as they pressed pennies for a quarter a piece.

That moment created a lifelong collecting hobby for Hoff and his family, shared by people around the country and the world who love to feed their pennies into a slot, choose a unique design that mirrors whatever attraction they are at, and crank an arm around and around until a flattened, bronze coin is spit out.

It is a pastime that could be impacted by the recent U.S. government decision earlier this year to stop producing pennies. The U.S. Mint stopped making the coin after President Donald Trump ordered the Treasury Department in February to stop minting the one-cent coin because it costs more to mint than it's worth. Each penny costs 3.69 cents to make, according to the U.S. Mint's annual report.

The end of production leaves an air of uncertainty for the penny and its future, including how it is spent by customers. Despite some stores already seeing shortages in the penny, coin collectors and penny press machine manufacturers alike both say there's no need to worry about the nostalgic souvenir activity disappearing.

"There are millions of machines around the world," Hoff, who now runs an online penny press community website, told USA TODAY. "They're very popular in other countries and all parts of the country. Here, some of them run on pennies, but there's also coin press machines that press nickels, dimes, quarters."

While some posts of concern regarding the future of the penny press have circulated on social media and community forums, manufacturers of the machines insist the method will not disappear anytime soon. With pennies still in circulation and other ways to press available, there's no need to worry, they say.

Brian Peters and his father, Joe, have run The Penny Press Machine Company in Minnesota for almost eight years, and both share a similar sentiment to Hoff. There are alternative methods to keep the hobby alive, they say, and some are already in use in the U.S. within their machines.

Some of the most popular alternative methods include using other types of coins for pressings, including nickels and dimes. The company also has machines that come stocked with copper "tokens" that are stored inside the press, are distributed when the customer pays, and act as the penny during a pressing, Brian Peters said. This can be used when a customer has no coins at all, as well.

While he is not worried, Fleming added that the antiquated nature of the penny press could play a role if it were to diminish in popularity. It's a very "analog thing in a very digital world," he said, but that also is what keeps it interesting to customers.

"I think that the appeal is either because its retro, in a sense the same way that perhaps a photo booth is retro or interesting," Fleming said. "The other thing, and this perhaps points to the lifespan of the penny press, is I think millennial parents will sort of point to them and say, "Oh I used one of them when I was a kid."

To read the complete article, see:
The penny press is here to stay coin collectors, manufacturers say (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/12/20/penny-press-coins-production/87776196007/)

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