Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Vacation Memories and Souvenirs

Where do you like to go on Vacation?
Penny press
Are you a warm weather seeker?
A mountain camper?
or a baseball fan?

Do you like museums, historic sites and battlefields?

Are you a theme park junkie with a fondness for roller coasters, animated characters and water rides?

My fondest vacation memories include time spent with family and friends in all of these places.

I like to bring home a little souvenir from each happy place that I visit. Something small to hold in my hand that triggers a wonderful memory.

I have a little jar of sand and shells from Rockport, beach glass from the Rose Island Lighthouse, smooth stones from Lake Ontario, iron pyrite from Atlanta, garnet from the Adirondacks  and a magnet from Sea World in my possession.

Last Spring Fred and i went on a trip to New York and visited the Intrepid Museum. While wandering the huge aircraft carrier I came upon a souvenir penny machine. I pressed several pennies with the dies on the Intrepid and found that they gave me a warm memory of my youth when my father (a Navy man himself) would bring us pennies that had been elongated by the wheels of a jet running over them on the flight deck.

I have become fascinated by these tiny treasures.

Pressed Pennies also known as squished pennies or elongated pennies are fun, inexpensive and interactive. The machines are located in many vacation spots throughout the United States. Each machine has it's own die design to make a unique penny for you.
To make a penny souvenir you will need a penny, 2 quarters and a strong arm.
Some machines offer you a choice of more than one design.
I have discovered that pressed pennies are very collectible. You can purchase tiny albums to store your pennies in or you  can keep them with your photographs.
I have decided to make jewelry out of mine.

To learn more about pressed pennies visit:
http://www.pressedpennies.com/
http://www.pennycollector.com/
copper bracelet made of baseball themed souvenir pressed pennies
Charm Bracelet made from pennies pressed in Cooperstown, New York

2 comments:

  1. So very cool! If we had something like that here, I could see myself becoming a collector of those.
    Great idea to make jewelry out of them.

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  2. I love them too,and like Cat wish we had them over here! Of course you've chosen the best way to show them off!!

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