Sega World coin

[CosmicMonkey]

Thought you guys might like to see this...

http://img289.imageshack.us/img289/1300/segacoin9gm.jpg

I got it years ago from a machine in Sega World Trocadero, London. You put a penny in the slot on the machine, a 50p in the other slot and turned the handle. The penny gets squashed and the image printed.

[Bleach_and_Vomit]

Very cool. :]

[rbudrick]

Like a sonic train ran over it. :-)

I've seen those machines before at amusement parks...usually with the park's logo or something on the coin. I hear that technically, it is illegal to destroy money like that in the US, but it could just be urban legend....something about being government property or something...I dunno.

-Rob

[c0ldb33r]

I hear that technically, it is illegal to destroy money like that in the US, but it could just be urban legend....something about being government property or something...I dunno.
I don't know about the states, but it IS illegal in Canada.

That's very cool by the way. I wonder what's it's worth, if anything.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I don't know about the states, but it IS illegal in Canada.

That's very cool by the way. I wonder what's it's worth, if anything.

It's illegal to destroy paper money -on purpose- as far as I know, but considering just how many pennies there are in the US, and what little value they have nowadays, I doubt the government really cares.

There are penny squashing machines such as those at many US amusement parks. I remember getting a penny squashed at Six Flags Magic Mountain back in 2002.

[Julio III]

Actually, I thought it would have been illegal over here as you are destroying the Queen's image on the coin. However, those machines you get at quite a few places I believe. Strange.
I wonder if the machine is still there - its no longer a Sega World and has just gone back to being called Fun Land again

[c0ldb33r]

What's in a Sega World anyway? Like game demo's and stuff? I've never seen (or even heard of) one.

[mydjsobad]

IIRC Sega World was a chain of arcades that made it's way to the US and UK like 5-10 years ago. Most of the US ones closed when Sega opened Gameworks, and then when Gameworks started going bankrupt (to some extent, I'm pretty sure Sega ended up franchising them so they wouldn't lose as much money) they closed the rest of them. I still have a token from a Sega World actually.

[GrayFox]

Damn.

Someone get me some of these. Which actually leads me to wonder if any of those machines are still in existence somewhere.

[c2000]

Wow, thats pretty cool :)

There's regular Sega World tokens floating around as well.
The Sega Stamp machine in the London Trocadero Funland arcade (former Segaworld) still has an option to add the Segaworld logo to the stamp :)

Http://www.watluljenou.nl/coin.jpg

[FullCircle]

You may be able to find one on eBay under coins->exunomia. The process is illegal in the U.S. but it is a law that is as enforced as the law in FL against walking while chewing gum. (No, really) Disney World has a few of these machines as well as vendors selling coins with shapes stamped out of them, like you'd find in Hallmark stores.

[Pantechnicon]

I have dozens of squashed pennies from various tourist traps across the U.S. I've been gathering them up as long as I've had kids. One day I'll hand all the pennies over to my little ones and they'll have a record of all the places they've been to over the years.

Suffice to say my kids (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/pzcortez/eggkids2.jpg) would kill for a Sonic penny.

As for the legality of penny squashers in the U.S. I don't think they're illegal because in a sense you're not destroying the coin, only altering its shape. It depends on the legal definition of "destroying currency", which I assume involves either melting coins down or otherwise altering their mass. A penny squasher does not remove mass from a coin, so presumably the penny still has the same intrinsic value as before it got flattened (which answers the question of the value of the Sonic penny as well...1 cent LOL ).

[Happy_Dude]

IIRC Sega World was a chain of arcades that made it's way to the US and UK like 5-10 years ago. Most of the US ones closed when Sega opened Gameworks, and then when Gameworks started going bankrupt (to some extent, I'm pretty sure Sega ended up franchising them so they wouldn't lose as much money) they closed the rest of them. I still have a token from a Sega World actually.
There was also one in Australia. I doubt they had a coin squisher because we
haven't used copper currency for a long time. I suppose you could squash a
5c coin if you really wanted to though :)

[jcalder8]

I bought a couple of those types of coins years ago, but they looked nowhere near as good as the Sega one. I hardly looks like it used to be another coin at all. I'm really impressed by the quality that Sega used.

As has been said it may be illegal to damage coins in the US and Canada but I have never traveled outside of here and I can remember getting at least 3 or 4 of them at different places so the law enforcement can't be too concerned with these machines.

[c0ldb33r]

...law enforcement can't be too concerned with these machines.
I'd be amazed if they cared at all. I doubt the police have the manpower or the will to cut down on penny stampers.

[ShinobiMan]

Very cool. I remember going to an arcade in Austin, TX called Sega City where they had these coins.

It looked something like this but it was inside a mall:

http://okazaki.yamasa.org/images/shops/sega_world.jpg

[aaron7]

United States law Section 331, Title 18 prohibits altering coins or other forms of money for fraudulent uses. It does permit the altering of coins without such intentions.

So you can squish any coin and deface any bill you want... long as it isn't to pass it off fradulently!

[Truffle]

Pantechnicon, you have the cutest kids ever! :)