… when Grandpa was a young pup man a quarter was worth only a penny – a smashed, squished, flattened, elongated souvenir penny from a penny machine.
Grandma still has that penny (and she had to hunt for a long time to find it). Actually it wasn’t the one she remembered Grandpa and Sean making in the early 1980’s in Miami, but one she made at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The old style penny machines, which are so much fun, have to be hand cranked to flatten the penny and you really feel like you accomplished something when your cool oval shaped souvenir penny tumbles out at the end. The space shuttle shape machine Grandma used was cool – imagine yourself in a space shuttle orbiting the earth, cranking the handle, watching your penny squish – ooooh, you’d feel like Mighty Dog!
Hugo says next time he and Grandma see a penny machine she is going to show him how to make his own souvenir penny!
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Oh boy, that picture just brought back some really cool memories as a kid!
I later on became a Gold/silversmith later in life and I recall having those same memories, flood back while I was thinning out gold on a mill. I was doing some jewelery repairs when I used it first while in the trade.