A bit of Pressed Pennies Triva:
Randy and Earl Vaughn from Dayton, Ohio, are credited with designing and building the first “Contemporary Elongated” machines in 1988. These mechanical, coin-operated machines were more practical and portable than their predecessors, making them ideal for high-traffic tourist destinations like amusement parks.
Their first stand-alone mechanical press was placed at Kings Island Amusement Park in Mason, Ohio, in late 1988. Their patent was eventually purchased by a manufacturer known as Uncommon Cents. This company, which later rebranded as Global Impressions USA, began mass-producing the machines, which are now ubiquitous in theme parks worldwide. The Vaughn/Uncommon Cents machines played a major role in the explosion of “pressed coin” culture at Disney parks.
Earl was my neighbor and somewhere we have some test pressings from when he was assembling that first Kings Island machine in his garage. We also have some pressings from the first Disney machine before Randy took it down to Disney World.