Submitted by Jess

I keep a record of all my pressed pennies including the date and place of the pennies I press: kept on an excel spreadsheet.

To do this I keep a sandwich bag with everything need.

These bags are pre-packed ahead of time, and ready to go.

There are enough pre-cleaned pennies & quarters (not cleaned) for a 4-penny machine, or more if needed.

• A sandwich bag.
• 3X4 sealing bag with write on label.
• A pocket magnifier and pen. I don’t keep magnifier in the sandwich bag to prevent scratching the lens, he goes in my pocket.
• White paper cut to fit inside the sandwich bag with the dates of all pennies that are in that particular bag (no duplicate dates).

When a Pressed Penny expedition is planned, I grab one bag for each machine encounter anticipated. Of course, I have only one magnifier so don’t forget this item.

When standing before a machine, I take everything out and put-on top of the machine or on a “shelf” space.

Before pressing: I find the date on a penny with the magnifier. Then, decide which pressed design on the machine I will use on that penny, then on the white piece of paper correlate that written penny date with the design description.

My wife writes the description next to the penny used as I smash that design. My wife just loves to help with this (she’s always been good catalyst for my unique foolishness), having 2 people to do this makes things easier.

Don’t forget to write the date, and where these penny treasures were born.

That information is on the white paper. The above pic is a duplicate pressed penny- for someone else. Each duplicate has their own zip bag with its info (so 2 or 3+ different penny dates with the same design can’t be confused).

Once the penny is pressed, I double check the design to penny date and store it in the sandwich bag. When all pennies are pressed and finished for that machine, I seal up the sandwich bag with pennies/duplicates/ and paper with all info. The pen and magnifier are pocketed.

The next day or days later I have all info I need to populate excel.

These days some machines have their own “Pennies”. If so, I indicate that as seen on the lower part of the picture: “Pressed on Machine given Copper Blank”.

Sometimes pennies given to me or bought at garage sales or swap meets where the date is unknown, I write “Pressed on a Copper & or Mixed Penny” mixed meaning copper & zinc.

I know all this might look strange but sometimes I think I enjoy messing with excel as much as I do collecting, pressing and showing off my pennies.

Time to make more bags:

Thanx Jess…