I’m sure we are all starting to get a little cabin fever from our self quarantining, and this current situation we are all experiencing is definitely something to take seriously for our own health, and others around us.  It is a little hard to spend this much time all cooped up inside and is harder for some of us than others.

I did need to venture out the other day to the grocery store for a few items and the highway near our house was completely deserted.

Thankfully our house is nicely stocked with a reasonable quantity of toilet paper and paper towels, but when I got to the store those shelves were completely bare.  The stores even had a queue setup that you could wait in, just in case they did get a shipment that day but there was no guarantee.  I picked up the items we did need and headed back to our home.

With all non-essential stores and attractions closed, for now, it’s hard to get my pressed penny fix.  To try and help I have been scouring eBay for coins to help fill in some of my collection gaps.  But more often I’ve been going through the TEC Facebook page and other Pressed Penny related groups or websites.  Among all the different posts from fellow collectors, I did come across a few that put a smile on my face and wanted to share with everyone.

First was on the TEC (The Elongated Collectors) Facebook page which if you aren’t a part of the group you should check it out.  The Facebook page is free and open to anyone even if you are not an official TEC member.  It’s a great way to experience the club and see what other members are posting about the hobby.  Plus there is a lot of trading and buying/selling of coins.  Some of these designs are pretty unique and would be hard to find anywhere else.

One recent post was from Tyler Tyson who is not just a member of TEC but the current Vice President of the club.  He had been working on a light-hearted penny design commemorating the toilet paper shortage.  There were a few different progressions of this design that he posted over a week or so.  He did make these available in a limited quantity to anyone in the group that was interested in for a small fee.  This is another perk of being in the Facebook group as special designs like this will pop up for sale every so often.

Updated:
Shortly after I had posted about the above penny, Tyler offered to the Facebook group a special set of 4 pressed dimes.  Each dime had the progression of the design through each stage ending with the design on the bottom.  He was offering only a small quantity of this set so they are probably no longer available, but as I’ve mentioned it’s a good reason to be a part of the Facebook page for special items like these.

Another group on Facebook I follow and really enjoy is The Penny Depot.  They also have a website and online store where you can buy many of their pressed penny designs.  I’ve written about some of their other designs in the past and have quite a few of their designs in my collection.  They are really detailed and celebrate some special events that you just don’t penny designs for very often.

In a recent post, they had made available another fun design called “The Great American Toilet Paper Shortage 2020”.  As soon as I saw this design I immediately went to their website and ordered one for my collection.

This wasn’t to try and make like of the situation we are in, but I did think we need to look on the lighter side of things from time to time to keep our sanity.  Please be safe and happy collecting!