I'm looking for a token-stamping machine that used to be (and
hopefully, still exist) in penny arcades.  You were able to turn a
dial and stamp the letters of your message on a aluminum "good luck"
token.  There was one featured in the movie "Harold and Maude" -- you
see Harold making one at the carnival/arcade, Maude
shocks him by throwing it into the San Francisco bay, telling him
"That way  I'll always know where it is," and reminding him not to get too
attached to things.
Ideally I'd like the location of any remaining machines to be in a
large city where I may have friends, or near the answerer, so I can
arrange to have one made.

Hello, Thor!

Below I've reposted my remarks (plus one piece of additional 
material) as the official answer to your question.

======================================================================

This company sells the machines and supplies blank tokens:

Coin Crafters & Engravers: Metal Typer
http://www.coincrafters.com/standard-metal-typer.htm

======================================================================

This online site allows you to enter the text that you want on your
"lucky souvenir coin," and the site's owner will stamp your message
with his metal-typer machine and send the coin to you:

Any Three Words: Metal Typer
http://www.anythreewords.com/metaltyper.html

======================================================================

Here's an interesting page devoted to various kinds of souvenir coins,
including a nice close-up photo of an aluminum "Arcade Stamped Good
Luck Coin" that looks exactly like the ones I remember from my youth.
Scroll about 2/3rds of the way down the page to the heading (F)
ARCADE-STAMPED GOOD LUCK COINS:

Lucky Mojo Curio Company: 20th Century North American Good Luck Coins
http://www.luckymojo.com/goodluckcoins.html

Cat Yronwode, the proprietess of "Lucky Mojo," the site linked above,
seems to be quite an authority on lucky tokens and coins. Her contact
details can be found here:

http://www.luckymojo.com/contact.html#lwvalues

======================================================================

In seeking this information, I used many different combinations of
keywords. These were the search strings that brought the best results:

Google Web Search: "good luck coin OR token" + "aluminum"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22good+luck+coin+OR+token%22+aluminum

Google Web Search: "metal typer"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22metal+typer

======================================================================

I'm delighted that I was able to help. If anything is unclear, or if a
link doesn't work for you, please request clarification; I'll be glad
to offer further assistance before you rate my answer.

Best wishes,
pinkfreud

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Request for Answer Clarification by thornyc-ga on 12 Dec 2003 22:12 PST

I'm going to hold off "rating" your answer until I hear back from the
person with Metal Typer at anythreewords.com, since I since checked
and observed that it is not linked or otherwise referenced at the
site's main page, so I'm hoping that the token page/service is not
"orphaned" and no longer available.  I hope to get back and either
give you five stars or request a refund (and start over looking) in
the next 24-48 hours.

Thank you, regardless, for your help.

I checked your ratings and was very, very impressed.  How do you do
it?!  Are you a research librarian?

Very cool handle, too, by the way.  Although it's probably a pun on
the band, I envision Sigmund in a teddy....

Thor

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 13 Dec 2003 11:34 PST

Thor,

I do hope the anythreewords.com page is still operative, and that
you'll be able to obtain your token. If not, I will ask the editors to
withdraw my answer so that you won't be charged, and another
Researcher can give this a try.

Thanks for the compliment on my handle. If you're interested in the
origins of 'pinkfreud', you might want to read this:

http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=80023

~pinkfreud

exactly what I was looking for; amazingly fast.  comprehensive and
courteous answer as well.

I haven't been able to find locations where you can use such a
machine, but I did find a company that sells the machines and supplies
blank tokens:

http://www.coincrafters.com/standard-metal-typer.htm

I also found this online site where you can enter the text that you
want on your "lucky souvenir coin," and the site's owner will stamp
your message with his metal-typer machine and send the coin to you:

http://www.anythreewords.com/metaltyper.html

I hope another Researcher will know of a place where you can find a working machine.

pinkfreud,

the latter is EXACTLY what I was looking for.  How do we make your
comment the "answer" so you get paid?  Newbie here -- this was my
first question, although I read answers.google frequently.

Thanks for your help,

Thor

The site is still operative and it is linked from
http://www.anythreewords.com. I routinely send out coins to people who
ask for them according to the instructions on the site. Thanks for
finding me. -David

The last time I was on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD, there was a
machine at one of the arcades there.

HTH,
Maxicek

thanks, maxicek -- if I ever get a chance to stop by there, I will!