Recently I had a quick trip up to Canada for my cousin’s wedding. This was a fun little getaway for our family. We flew out of Orlando and into Toronto, then had about an hour drive to the Kitchener-Waterloo area. This is where most of my dad’s side of the family are located and has been quite a long time since I last visited. We were only there for a couple days, and most of the time we had scheduled for the different family events and wedding. But I did find a little bit of time early one morning to venture out to nearby St. Jacobs Ontario to find a couple penny press machines.
It was a short drive from our hotel but it quickly turned from urban to rural which I absolutely loved. All the sprawling farm lands, livestock, and crops was not just beautiful to see what kind of relaxing in a strange way. I’m a city person through and through so maybe that’s why this is such a nice little change of pace. The slow moving giant harvesters on the road however I could have done without.
As I pulled off the highway towards and into the village center I found my first stop a place called Fudge Sakes. It was a cute little candy and ice cream shop. Unfortunately I was here so early in the morning that they were not yet open for business. Thankfully for me however the penny machine was located out front on the deck allowing use at any time of day.
This was nice clear acrylic cabinet, with a large marquee on the top with the coin designs available. In the middle of the machine on the right side there was even a manual hold punch that you could use to punch a hole through your penny to turn it into a necklace or bracelet which I don’t think I’ve seen before.
The machine cost $1 which in Canada is a coin affectionally known as a “loonie” because of the Loon bird that originally appeared on the coin when it was first released. The machine also preloaded with a large stack of US Cents. Thankfully I had enough loonies to use the machine, especially since the store wasn’t open. It pressed the coins wonderfully and I loved that it included St. Jacobs Ontario on each one.
Just a short drive away from the Fudge store was the St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market. Thankfully this place was open bright an early. There weren’t too many visitors there when I arrived which was fine with me. Outside were all different stands with fresh fruit and other produce as well as things like honey, preserves and canned food items. The selection was seemingly endless.
There were some large buildings that housed more permanent looking merchants and included a large food court. After wondering through almost all the buildings I ended up near the information office where I found the penny machine. It has a similar cabinet design to the other once I found earlier, and even included the hole punch attachment.
Once again this machine pressed really nicely and the coins dropped out in all their glory. The details on these designs was fantastic and I noticed afterwards that they even had little maple leafs on the right and left ends.
Unfortunately these were the only two penny machines in the area that I had time for during this trip. As much as I love collecting elongated coins, I must admit I was more looking forward to spending some time with family that I hadn’t seen in quite some time. The wedding was such a fun time and we were so happy we could attend, and I even got a few pennies along the way. Keep on Pressing!
David's Coin Travels 