Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you are having a wonderful day with family, friends, neighbors, or maybe just pets. Enjoy the day and maybe if you are like my family you’ll check out just a bit (or all 24 hours) of the annual A Christmas Story TV marathon.

I will admit when I first watched this movie I wasn’t a huge fan, and for years I would change the channel when it would air on TV. But then when I started joining my wife’s family for the Holiday’s this was a staple that they would start watching Christmas Eve. The more I watched it the more I enjoyed and now it just doesn’t seem like Christmas if we don’t watch it at least 3 or 4 times.

I’m sure most of you have seen this move and know what it’s all about. However in case any of you haven’t seen it the story revolves around Ralphie a 9-year old boy in 1940. All Ralphie wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200 Shot Range model Air Rifle.

His desire is rejected by his mother, his school teacher and even a disgruntled Santa at the local department store. All giving him the same advice “You’ll Shoot your Eye Out.”

As I’m sure you can guess Ralphie does eventually get his special gift and has a very an unfortunately incident afterwards. Almost like he was told before hand exactly what would happen. To help celebrate this classic movie and catchphrase, fellow elongated coin collector and designer Alex Mruk created this fantastic design. It’s centerpiece is the family tree with two rifles along each side of the tree, a broken pair of glasses, and plenty of gifts under the tree. You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid in text down the middle, and the bottom includes Merry X-Mas 2023

I’ve mentioned this numerous times in the past but if you are not currently a member of the Facebook Group The Elongated Collectors what are waiting for. It’s free and there are always plenty of other members creating and offering unique elongated coin designs I guarantee you will not find anywhere else. All are available for a reasonable cost, and can include not just pressed pennies but other denominations and even international coins. If you want a copy of this coin, join the club and reach out to Alex Mruk. Then just sit back and wait to see what all the very talented designers come up with next.

Merry Christmas, and as always Keep on Pressing!!

P.S. – If you are interested in watching a fun little recreation of the infamous “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out” scene, I have a short YouTube video up on my channel that you can check out below. Enjoy!

Not too far from the U.S. Mint we drove towards the 16th Street Mall which had quite a variety of dining and shopping locations available, plus a couple penny machines.

Unfortunately during our visit large sections of the mall walkway was under massive construction. Loud noice, cramped detour paths and lots of dust in the air made this a less than perfect experience. But we were determined to make the best of it.

From where we parked there was about a 5 minute walk before we found the Hard Rock Cafe Denver location. The exterior of the building had some fun details, and of course the iconic Hard Rock Guitar was rotating over top of the front entrance awning.

If you have ever visited a Hard Rock Cafe then you pretty much know the deal inside, they are all setup very similarly. Plenty of tables, fun music, and of course a ton of memorabilia covering every wall.

The first floor was very full during our visit so I quickly headed up to the second floor just to be able to take some photos and really enjoy checking out the rock n’ roll history.

We opted not to have lunch here just because we were more interested in eating somewhere a little more local. Or you know maybe an In n’ Out Burger who knows the options are endless. Before we left however there was one quick stop needed and that was to the Rock Shop.

The pressed penny machine was sitting right out front of the shop. You do not need to be eating here or buy anything to access the machine.

If you have been following along you may have noticed that many of the penny machines we’ve come across so far have not been effected by the price increases we have seen elsewhere in the Country to press a penny. Here at the Hard Rock however their machine did cost $1 plus your approved penny to press. The only problematic thing is that the $1 needs to be paid in quarters. The staff near by where very helpful in making change for me so I could get a set, but just be aware you’re probably better off brining your own quarters and pennies just in case.

This penny set is fantastic. You know me I love a good set of designs that include the location and these even gave us some unique designs just for Denver like the Skyline. I do have a few other Hard Rock Cafe location sets so this will fit right in and I’m anxious to find more.

We have just a couple more stops on this Coloration vacation so stay tuned for the conclusion of this amazing trip over the next few posts. Have a wonderful day and Keep on Pressing!

On our second to last day of our Denver trip I had quite a few places still on my to do list and we were going to try and visit as many of them as we could. The first stop and the focus of this post was one I had been looking forward too even before we arrived in Colorado and that was the U.S. Mint.

I have visited the Mint in Philadelphia quite a few years ago and pressed those pennies so I was anxious to get a set from this location to keep that collecting going.

The architecture of the building was beautiful, and the tall pointy fence surrounding it was a bit intimidating. But there was some very import inventory inside this building especially for us collectors, even if they are made out of zinc now a days.

My plan was to take a tour inside the mint, but unfortunately by the time we arrived all the tour tickets had been distributed for the day which was unfortunately. Thankfully all was not lost and we were able to explore the gift shop.

It wasn’t very big inside, however they had quite a selection of coin related merchandise and souvenirs. I even found some t-shirts, and coin storage supplies among other things.

Not to mention quite a few large glass cabinets that had all sorts of uncirculated coin sets, and many different unique coin collections.

Near the check out counter I even found some penny in a bottles. I checked quite a few of them hoping to find a pre-1982 copper, unfortunately there weren’t any too be found. These were still a fun souvenir for our trip so I picked one up anyways to add to my penny in a bottle collection which has slowly been growing recently.

Of course the main event for this visit was the pressed penny machine. It was located just inside the entrance / exit door and is pretty easy to find if you visit here. I loved the vibrant colors of the vinyl wrap on the machine. Plus the machine was still only $0.50 and I was able to press this set on some copper pennies I had brought with me.

I loved this set of penny designs. There was only one for the U.S. Mint that had the building exterior. The other designs included some fun images of Colorado icons like down hill skiing, a buffalo (maybe bison?) and the rocky mountains with the tag line The Mile High Club.

This was a fun and quick visit which actually worked in our favor since we still had a few more places to try and get to this day. Stay tuned for those last few posts as we slowly start to come towards the conclusion of our trip. Thanks for visiting, and as always Keep on Pressing!

Alright enough side tracking, it was now time to hit the trails for a hike. When I was searching for locations near our cabin the one that popped up as the most popular, and also not too challenging for beginners was Red Rocks Park.

We had barely just driven into the park and were already taken back by the size and beauty of where we were. I found a parking lot that seems fairly close to a few different trails, and picked one that stated it was about 2 miles in length.

We figured it was best to take a before photo since by the end of this experience we may not be in as high spirits.

The trail wasn’t paved, but was well worn and easy to follow. We came across many different signs and marking helping to keep us on the correct path.

It was just really beautiful here and I found myself taking so many pictures and videos along the way to document it as best I could. Trust me however, as nice as these photos are, they pale in comparison to being there in person and seeing it with your own eyes.

We weren’t speeding through the hike and really took our time to enjoy where we were. In total probably look a little less than an hour to do the whole trail and thankfully it brought us right near where we had left our car. Before we left the park there was one other place I wanted to check out. This was the Amphitheatre that is wedge into rocks and is incredible. The only draw back was we had to walk up these very steep ramps that twisted back and forth up along one of the rock races.

This was another place that just seems out of this world. They host all sorts of different events here from early morning yoga, to music concerts, and more.

It’s hard to explain exactly how huge this place it but trust me it was amazing. I wish we would have been able to stick around for a concert or some event to see it in action.

My family opted to sit and rest back down towards the bottom of the amphiteathre but I had to clip a ton of steps to the top so I could access to Red Rocks Visitor Center.

Inside near the information desk was where I found two different machines. First was a collectible medallion machine with a wonderful vinyl wrap.

The coins had images of the Amphitheatre, Red Rocks park established 1941, the Denver Skyline, and a ferocious looking T-Rex. The reverse side of all the coins had the same design which had a little description of the Amphitheatre.

Just a few steps to the left and I found myself in front of the Pressed Penny Machine. Now if you look closely you may see a sticker near the $1.00 price tag that says “Out of Order”. I walked all the way up here and the penny machine was out of order. I did try it anyways but just confirmed it was not operational.

So it took a few weeks after we got home for my mail off letter to make its way back to the Visitor Center and a very kind staff member pressed the pennies for me once the machine was back up and running. The set of pennies has some fun designs including another wide image of the Amphitheatre, Red Rocks from Dinosaurs to Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Red Rocks, and a Dinosaur skeleton.

Our hike was a success and we even heard from comments from our kids on the drive back to our cabin that they enjoyed the experience. Unfortunately our trip to Colorado was coming to an end in a few more days, but we were taking this as a sign to try and squeeze in another hike or two if we could. Plus I still had quite a few more pennies on my shopping list we had to track down so be sure to stay tuned and as always Keep on Pressing!