ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Have you ever gone to the zoo or a museum and received a stretched coin as a souvenir? Well, the “The King of Elongated Coins” from the 1904 World’s Fair is up for auction and the lot including two other coins could be worth up to $4,000.

Over 100 years ago there were machines along the midway at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis making coins for keepsakes. The Pike Souvenir elongated cent was made from a 1904 Indian Head cent.

The midway is also known as “The Pike.” So, the image of the Pike fish on the coin and the name of the coin are a play on words.

The coin is in excellent condition. The auction’s description describes the cent as one of the finest graded by the  Numismatic Guaranty Corporation:

“Obviously rolled and then put away into careful storage, the surfaces exhibit substantial mint orange — is that the proper way to describe color after a cent has been elongated? — and the Indian design itself remains plainly discernible on the reverse, itself still showing a lot of orange color.”

You can see the coin on July 23 at Scotsman Coin & Jewelry’s Midwest Summer Sale. It will be at the Saint Charles Convention Center in Saint Charles along with the Missouri Numismatic Society’s convention. Online bidding is underway now.