Change Machine

Date: 2026

Materials: One penny and a 2026 American-made penny press souvenir coin machine containing laminated wood, hardware, electrical implements, a custom coin operated steel mechanism, and custom printed signs.

Dimensions: H: 60.26 in, W: 14.5 in, D: 16.5 in

Weight: 165 lb

You put a penny in the penny machine, turn the handle, and strike a penny for the future. Your action physically makes change. This is not a metaphor. It is a reminder. Every movement that has ever shifted the weight of history required bodies in motion and hands at work. The currency of the past becomes the currency of the future only through that pressure, that turning, that strike.

The first known pressed penny machine made its debut at the 1892-1893 Chicago World's Fair and Columbian Exposition. Since then pressed penny machines have been a fixture of American tourism for over a century, souvenirs flattened and stamped with images of the places we visit and the moments we want to remember. This machine works the same way, but instead of commemorating the past, it mints the future.

The newly minted pressed penny can be seen as two sides of the same coin. On one side, it is a hopeful symbol of progress through our shared economic history, a history that gave us the middle class, the minimum wage, and the slow, uneven march toward broader financial inclusion. On the other, it is a stark reminder of our regressive ways of thinking about value. The last penny was minted in Philadelphia on November 12th, 2025, retired because it cost more to produce than it was worth. Yet the thinking that kept it around persists, in the ways we measure work and decide what deserves to be valued.

By placing a coin from the past into a machine and turning the handle yourself, you become part of the process. The future is the change you make.