Frequently Asked Questions

Coin Atlas is a community-driven platform for discovering and mapping souvenir machines worldwide — from elongated penny presses and touristic coin dispensers to memorial banknote printers and more.

Users can browse an interactive map, add new machine locations, and help keep existing data accurate and up to date.

It's a fun way to discover new places — hunting for machines feels a bit like geocaching, with a collectible souvenir waiting at the end!

Elongated coins (also known as pressed pennies or squished coins) are souvenir coins created by feeding a regular coin into a hand-cranked or electric machine that rolls and stamps it with a design. They are one of the most popular and affordable souvenirs found at tourist attractions around the world.

The designs typically feature landmarks, mascots, or logos of the location where the machine is placed.

Besides elongated coins, there are several other types of souvenirs commonly found at tourist sites:

• Touristic coins & tokens — pre-minted metal coins or tokens (often gold- or silver-coloured) sold via vending machines. They feature a design specific to the location and come in various shapes, sizes, and materials — sometimes as collectible sets or in protective holders.
• Memorial money — decorative banknotes issued by vending machines, typically featuring local landmarks or historical motifs. These are made of paper or a paper-like material and are popular souvenirs at many European tourist attractions.

All of these share one thing in common: they are fun, affordable keepsakes that capture the memory of a visit. Coin Atlas maps machines for all these types.

Our goal is to build the largest open global database of souvenir machines — think of it as a Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap for souvenir machines, built and maintained by the community.

• Open source community — the platform is built with and for the community.
• Open data — contributed location data will be published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 4.0), so anyone can use and build on it.

Coin Atlas is free for all core features — browsing the map, adding locations, and contributing to the community. We believe in a clean, ad-free experience — there are no ads, no tracking, and no data collection beyond what is necessary to run the service.

Running the platform — servers, databases, and other infrastructure — costs money. To cover these costs, we might introduce in future an optional subscription for collectors with extra features such as more collection-management tools and advanced filtering and export options. The core features as of today will always remain free.

Coin Atlas is available as a web application that works on any modern browser, as well as native apps for Android and iOS.

• Android on the Google Play Store
• iOS on the App Store

No — you can browse the map and view all location details without an account.

Creating a free account unlocks additional features:

• Add new machine locations
• Submit corrections and report issues
• Log your visits and indicate machine status to others
• Track your collection (planned)

Registration only takes a moment and helps us keep the community active and the data reliable.

All location data on Coin Atlas is contributed by the community — collectors and enthusiasts like you who discover machines and share them with others.

Because the data is crowd-sourced, it may occasionally be incomplete or inaccurate. If you spot something that doesn't look right, you can help improve it by submitting a report directly from the location's detail page.

Submitted data and reports may be reviewed by our team to ensure quality and consistency across the platform.

You can request a correction or deletion for any location at any time — just use the "Report this location" link on the detail page and our team will look into it.

All contributed location data is released under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 4.0), making it freely available for anyone to use, share, and build upon.

When you add a new location, machine, coin motif or submit a correction, our team takes a quick look at the submission before it's published.

The goal of this review is to keep the platform safe and useful for everyone. We check that submissions are free of spam, advertising, and offensive or otherwise inappropriate content, and that they fit the purpose of Coin Atlas.

What we do not check is whether a location actually exists at the given spot, looks exactly as described, or is currently operating. We trust the community to provide accurate information. If you come across something that doesn't match reality, please use the "Report this location" link so other members or our team can take another look.

Contributing is easy — just create a free account and you're ready to go. Here's how you can help:

• Add a location — found a machine that's not on the map? Click "Add Location" in the header, place the pin, and fill in the details.
• Improve existing data — spot something outdated or incorrect? Use the "Report this location" link on any location's detail page to let us know.
• Log your visits — record which machines you've used and help others know they're still active.

Every contribution — no matter how small — helps the community and makes Coin Atlas more useful for everyone.

Yes. Coin Atlas only uses publicly available information — such as the existence and location of coin machines that are visible and accessible to the general public. This is comparable to other well-known community platforms that catalogue publicly accessible points of interest, such as petrol station price trackers or vending machine finders.

Under German law, the collection and publication of publicly accessible business-related data is generally permissible. Personal data obtained from publicly accessible sources may also be published without prior consent, provided no sensitive or copyrighted content is involved (§ 28 (1) BDSG). This applies in particular to business information and publicly visible metadata.

If a location owner does not wish to be listed or would like their entry removed, they can use the "Report this location" feature on any location's detail page to submit a removal request. Our team will review and process these requests promptly.

Each location can be tagged with one of three wheelchair accessibility levels:

• Fully accessible — step-free entrance, wide doors, enough room to move around. Usable without assistance.
• Partially accessible — usable with some limitations or assistance, e.g. a small step at the entrance or narrow passages.
• Not accessible — not practically usable with a wheelchair, e.g. stairs without a ramp or lift.

These levels are meant as a rough guide based on community input. When in doubt, we recommend contacting the venue directly.

You can delete your account yourself at any time:

1. Open your profile menu in the header and select “Account”.
2. On the Personal Info page, scroll down and click “Delete my account”.
3. Confirm the deletion in the dialog. We'll send a confirmation link to your email address.
4. Click the link in the email to complete the deletion.

Tip: In the app, you'll find the delete option at the bottom of your profile page.

Once confirmed, your account becomes immediately inaccessible. You can request restoration via support within 14 days. After that, all account data is permanently deleted.

Note: Your previous contributions to locations, machines and coin designs are kept in anonymised form, since they are published under a free license and are part of the community data.