I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I just recently was going through some old posts about pressed pennies I had acquired during some vacations and realized that some were missing. A few years ago my family took a week vacation to the Fort Myers area of Florida, and apparently I completely forgot to write about it. We visited a few different places during that trip, and I pressed quite a few pennies so I’m going to try and catch up on those coins.

On our first day after traveling to the Fort Myers area, my kids were anxious for a beach day. We got up early had a nice breakfast and then headed to the beach to setup for the day.

Thankfully we had a beautiful day to enjoy the beach. It’s a long sprawling area which was nice and we didn’t feel like we were right on top of other visitors. Eventually as we always encounter in Florida during the summer is the daily rain shower. We took that as a good opportunity to pack up our things and head back to the hotel after a nice long visit to the beach.

While my family was relaxing in the hotel, I decided to head out and try to track down a couple nearby penny machines. I always love these beach town areas, the color of the buildings is fun and bright, and thankfully during this trip there wasn’t a lot of traffic. Coming from New Jersey, parking is always an issue at the shores.

The first penny press I tracked down was located on the front porch of a store called The Cigar Hut. The machine was even placed right on the edge of the porch so I was able to access it from the sidewalk and not disturb any shoppers heading inside.

The machine had a cute cabinet with some images of the nearby beach and shopping areas. However this style of machine has never been my favorite. I find they usually don’t roll very well and it’s difficult to know if you have selected the correct design. Plus with this machine being outside and dealing with the nearby beach salty air they take quite a beating and could definitely use some oil inside to help those gears work a bit more smoothly.

Once I had finished pressing the set I was actually pretty impressed with the final results. Only one design rolled got cut off a bit on the left side. The others came out complete for the most part.

Back near the beach there was this fun little area with plenty of souvenir shots and places to grab some food. It reminded me a lot of the boardwalks back in Jersey. During my research of pressed penny machines prior to this trip I didn’t read about any in this area, but it just seemed like a place that would have one. I wondered around and went into many different stores however came up short with no unlisted penny machines.

There was still one more machine that I knew should be available somewhere. The only issue was that the address wasn’t really a physical address just more of a guideline.

The location of the machine was right on the side of the sidewalk near the entrance to a parking lot. Thankfully it was just a few streets over from where I had originally parked. The machine definitely had an interesting looking cabinet design. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a pirate themed machine, or just using a white barrel because of the nearby bars. In any case I think it was a unique design that had seen better days.

This machine also could have used a good dose of oil or lubricants to get it back into a more functional state. It was able to press a full set of the designs but that one with FMB (Ft. Myers Beach) I tried a few times and the one pictured above was the best I could get.

With my two new sets of pennies packed away in my pocket I headed back to our hotel for a little down time. Those beach days with all the sun, and salt water definitely take its toll and I was ready for a nap. Stay tuned for more adventures and plenty more elongated coins from our trip to Fort Myers Florida.

Keep on Pressing!

I cannot believe that I somehow completely forgot to write about a visit to Kennedy Space Center that my daughter and I took quite a few years ago at this point. There were quite a few penny machines, it made for a really fun and educational visit. Below I’m going to recount trip but wanted to preface it with a note on the penny machines. The photos are going to show that the machine cost was at that point $0.50 plus my own penny to press. I have been informed that all of these machines more recently have been converted to the new $1.00 price point and the machines now supply the penny. The designs have not changed and if I ever do get an opportunity to visit again I’ll make sure to update the machine photos.

Located in Cape Canaveral Florida it took us about an hour and half drive from the Orlando area to arrive. It is kind of surreal just to think of all the history that has taken place on this very property.

As soon as you can your ticket and enter you are immediately drawn to the rocket garden, with its various rockets all standing tall like skyscrapers in a city. The closer you get to them, the reality of just how big they are is almost overwhelming.

There are so many different things to see and do here. My daughter enjoyed a space themed playground, there is a movie theater, space simulators, hall of fame, memorials and much more. We eventually found ourselves heading into the World’s Largest Space Shop.

There was definitely a lot of items inside this shop including quite a few penny machines. Near on of the entrance/exit doors we found the first few machines.

The machines were all pretty standard CTM (Pennymen) models. They were well maintained and I didn’t run into any issues pressing my pennies. The designs available were also fantastic with images of all different space themes both historical and more current.

I especially enjoyed the Space Shuttle designs. I think it may just be that the shuttle was the primary space craft used during my youth and I remember seeing and hearing about it on the news during that time. It’s such and iconic creation, and soon I’d be up close and person with one of them.

There were three penny machines on the first floor of the gift shop but I also found a collectible medallion machine near one of the checkout areas.

The coin designs had some great images on them, and I thought the above design on the reverse side of each coin was a nice though with the Kennedy Space Center logo and established date.

We headed up to the second floor to see what they had and ran into a few more penny machines.

These two machines were kind of tucked away in a back corner away from much of the other merchandise. If you head towards the elevator you will have no issue finding them.

This was the final penny machine inside the souvenir shop making for a total of five machines, 20 penny designs and also that medallion machine. Quite a nice collection for just one stop, and we still had a huge part of the property left to explore.

We headed back outside and wondered around just taking everything in, but we were eventually drawn towards the large orange boosters standing tall in from of the Space Shuttle Atlantis building. This is (other than the pennies) the reason I wanted to visit.

After we entered in the building, we walked up along some long ramps and then were guided into a dark theater. There were no seats, we just stood there as the show began. We watched a video about the Shuttle program and Atlantis specifically. Then as the video faded, the wall behind seemed to fade away and we were given an incredible view of the actual Space Shuttle Atlantis. The effect of this transition was simply incredible and even now I’m kind of at a lost for words to how to properly explain it.

The shuttle was just gorgeous, such an incredible piece of history and engineering. I loved seeing the Canada Arm extended in the back cargo bay area. There were burn marks and other signs of its trips through space and reentry into our atmosphere. I was truly in awe.

If you remember when we first entered the Atlantis building we had walked up quite a few ramps. So after seeing the shuttle we worked our way through the exhibits down to the first floor that was filled with quite a few interactive activities. Near another flight simulator I found another pressed penny machine.

Before we left the building we had to exit out through the Shuttle Express Gift shop.

Inside we were able to fine a couple more pressed penny machine. This set of pennies was one of my favorites with all the Shuttle themed designs.

On the opposite side of the gift shop we the second machine with a nice NASA logo design, and I thought the penni with the Saturn V Rocket was fantastic.

Inside this gift shop I also came across a penny booklet for Kennedy Space Center, and it even included a special pressed penny in the cover.

Our day was quickly coming to an end, but there was still one place I wanted to try and visit before we had to leave. That was the Apollo/Saturn V Center. It’s on property, however you can’t walk there and need to get into a special line to board a tour bus that will transport you over to the separate building. Along the way the driver will give you some information about the buildings and even wildlife along the route. One of the most impressive was the humongous Vehicle Assembly Building and if you are lucky you may even get to see the flat crawler vehicles that move the rockets to the launch pad.

At the Apollo / Saturn V Center you begin by watching a little video about both programs, then you enter into a viewing area of command central where they simulate a rocket launch. After that you exit out into a long room with an actual Saturn V rocket suspended from the ceiling. Being able to walk underneath each section of the rocket shows exactly how large they are. It was simply incredible.

As we have come to expect there was another gift shop called the Right Stuff we had to cut through in order to leave.

We had found the last two pressed penny machines just outside of the gift shop. The first machine had a design of the Apollo program patch, the Apollo 11 lunar module, and a Saturn 5 rocket.

The last penny machine was right next to the previous one. I didn’t notice at the time, but once I got home I thought I had pressed one of the machines twice as I had two of the exact same designs. As it turns out this last machine had the exact same designs as the very first machine we used inside the World’s Largest Space Shop.

With my pockets weight down by pressed pennies we had finished our visit to Kennedy Space Center. It was truly an unforgettable experience and I look forward to being able to visit again some time soon in the future. There was quite a bit we didn’t get to experience but what we did see will be a fond memory for a long time. Keep on Pressing!