A week or so ago I was checking out my Facebook feed wishing some friends a Happy Birthday, and “Liking” various photos of babies, and my personal favorite cute/funny animal pictures.  Then as I aimlessly scrolled the lasted status updates a picture caught my eye.

Since I was a kid I have collected a lot of things, comic books, sports cards, stamps, coins and a bunch of other things but I’ve never gotten into the holiday porcelain collections.  The ones I usually see come out around this time of year and have all different types of buildings, and characters so you can build your own holiday village.  I know some people who have huge collections and take great pride each year building new configurations that cover their entire dining room table.  But once I saw this picture online I had to have it, and it may end up starting a new collection in my house.

To be honest at first I thought this was a Christmas tree ornament which would have been really cool.  But once I did some Google searches I found that it was a porcelain piece.

Above is a shot from the back.  I will say that this little figurine is pretty detailed, and I could swear I’ve used that machine before.

Here’s a close up of the machine and little boy turning the handle as his father searches his pocket for some spare change.

I included a picture above of the box the piece comes in.  It’s from the Christmas in the City collection and is called Pennies for the Penny Press.  I found it on Amazon and also quite few on eBay.  It ranges from $10-30 depending on whether is the figurine only or an unopened piece.  Right now I have it sitting on the desk I use to work on my penny collection, but must say it seems a little lonely without a quaint little town to put it into context.  Looks like I’ll be heading out to find some more pieces to start my new collection.