Clark County Show and More Smashed Pennies!

Yesterday was set up day and early bird buying at the Clark County Antique and Collectible show in WA. It's about a 45 minute drive across the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington. We do this show there once a year, in January. It's a bit smaller than the Expo show but it is one of our best selling shows. The people are really nice and fun at this show. Jimmy is looking pretty happy at the end of the day.

I do his displays for him and it's fun for this old retail shoppe owner. We had retails stores most of our married lives...pharmacies and gift shoppes. This retirement hobby is fun for us both.

Enjoy some photos of our booth. Unfortunately, I didn't snap pictures until the end of the day, so a lot of our goodies are missing from the photos....but then, I am not complaining. I am thankful for such a wonderful day of sales!

You get to know a lot of people in the trade. There's a man who does Estate sales and the shows who knows I collect smashed pennies.  He brings me pennies at each show...isn't that nice? I got 3 yesterday. I did a blog post earlier on my collection, but wanted to share a bit more about the pennies.

According to Wikipedia, this is the definition of these pennies which are also called elongated pennies.

"Elongated coins are coins that have been elongated (flattened ore stretched) and embossed with a new design with the purpose of creating a commemorative or souvenir  token.  The collecting of elongated coins is a branch of numismatics. Elongated coins are categorized as exonumia."

This is my very first smashed penny that was given to me by my Uncle Rich when I was just a girl. I always loved it and saved it. It's the Lord's Prayer.

This is my Penny Passport~the keeper of my collection.

I have started a second book now. It's a great way to keep these together and enjoy them. My granddaughter Ava likes them too, so I got her a book.

These are the new ones I received yesterday...the Golden Gate Bridge, A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, featuring Santa, and the 10 Commandments. Really cool!

I did a little research and the first smashed penny was done in 1893 for the Columbia Exposition in Chicago.

Today, most machines look like this. I like this kind as I can crank the wheel and watch the operation. Some machines just pump them out and you don't do anything. You can find them at museums, historical places, souvenir shoppes and amusement parks.

They are divided into 3 groups....

1. OLDIES...1893-1965

2. Modern Elongateds...1965-1985 or so

3. Contemporary Elongateds...1988 to the present

As with all collecting, it gets detailed. If you are interested in more information, there's a lot of information on the internet.

One last bit of information. If you have an iPhone, there is an app to find locations to get smashed pennies! It's called PENNY FINDER. I did download it on my phone for fun. It will give you local locations, locations by states and even international locations. FUN FUN FUN!