I find lucky pennies on the ground everywhere I go. I pick them up whether they are heads or tails and put them in my pocket and eventually put them in the bank and that’s why I think they’re lucky! That was where the idea of a lucky penny originated–it was just a penny you found. You can see the variations of the little ditty about pennies and luck on One Frugal Girl’s website here.
The Birth of the Encased Coin
The first encased coins were made for the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, which was held in 1901 and features a 1901 penny in this Good Luck Souvenir. Unfortunately, President McKinley was assassinated in the closing months of the exhibition. I would point out in this token, the year of the exhibition and the year of the coin match and was not an accident. It is the person or company that is making decisions about what year the penny should be with the manufacturer of the encased coins. So if you find a lucky penny token with a coin older than 1901, it is an attempt for you to pay more for an item that has been tampered with.
Encased Coins as Giveaways or Promotions
This bank opened in 1954 in Golden Valley, Minnesota, and had 1954 pennies encased for their promotion. I particularly love the idea that they used a coin because they are a bank. Some of the schools when I was growing up encouraged saving and invited students to bring in coins which were then put into the savings bank under their name. Small town thing, I guess which taught financial responsibility. You are looking at the reverse or “tails” we would call it. The opposite side of this penny which we call “heads” is called the obverse side by coin collectors.
This token was probably a giveaway when you bought Dr. Drake’s Glessco Cough Syrup for adults at your local pharmacy in the 1950s. Notice it doesn’t say where manufactured. I took a quick look online and much to my surprise it is still being made and used not necessarily called Glessco.
The Encased Coin or Token Lucky Penny
I got this at a flea market years ago. It advertised a Bernardston, MA drive-in and came with a slightly rusty Vee Dub key on its ball chain. I eventually sold it to one of the very few buyers I have had the pleasure of receiving mail from after the sale. He liked that the key reminded him of driving on the sandy beaches in California in his own VW in the 1960s and just wanted to let me know that this will always remind him of his youthful days in the sun.
You might very much enjoy collecting these encased coins. It might even be more meaningful if you collect by themes, for example cars, restaurants, shapes of the casings (and there are many), locations or advertising to name a few. This is a subset of coin collecting. Learn more about these lucky tokens on a collectors site here. I enjoyed a few online conversations with the webmaster who is very kind and willing to share his knowledge with others for which we are all very lucky indeed!
