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World's Largest Penny: world record set in Woodruff, Wisconsin

July 11, 2022

Woodruff, Oneida County, Wisconsin, United States--The World’s Largest Penny was dedicated as a tribute to the staff and students of Arbor Vitae-Woodruff School and reflects Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb‘s dream for a local hospital, as well as the community spirit of Woodruff and Arbor Vitae residents and civic groups who donated labor and materials and organized fundraising activities; made of concrete block, it is 10 feet in diameter, 18 inches thick, and weighs 17,452 pounds, setting the world record for being the World's Largest Penny, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.


"In 1953, Dr. Pelham began fundraising for a hospital in her small hometown of Woodruff, and a local high school class made it their mission to “save their pennies” and donate $10,000 to the future hospital," the Discover Wisconsin reports.


"The class raised $17,000 and national attention, which led to Dr. Pelham appearing on the popular 1950s television show This is Your Life. The hospital opened shortly after and the giant penny statue was unveiled in 1954.

World's Largest Penny Monument: world record set in Woodruff, Wisconsin

"At 15 feet high, 12 inches thick and nearly 9 tons in weight, the World's Largest Penny maintains a prominent place in tiny Woodruff," the Travel Wisconsin reports.


"The concrete currency commemorates a 1953 fundraiser engineered by Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb, who challenged local schoolchildren to save their pennies to build a hospital. Word got out nationwide and ultimately resulted in 1.7 million pennies collected."

Penny (United States coin)


A penny is a coin (pl. pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is the formal name of the British penny and the de facto name of the American one-cent coin as well as the informal Irish designation of the 1 cent euro coin.


The cent, the United States one-cent coin (symbol: ¢), often called the "penny", is a unit of currency equaling one one-hundredth of a United States dollar.


It has been the lowest face-value physical unit of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent in 1857 (the abstract mill, which has never been minted, equal to a tenth of a cent, continues to see limited use in the fields of taxation and finance). The first U.S. cent was produced in 1787, and the cent has been issued primarily as a copper or copper-plated coin throughout its history.


The U.S. Mint's official name for the coin is "cent" and the U.S. Treasury's official name is "one cent piece". The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, which occupies a similar place in the British system. Pennies is the plural form.


The penny is issued in its current form as the Lincoln cent, with its obverse featuring the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, the centennial of his birth.

World's Largest Penny Monument: world record set in Woodruff, Wisconsin

Penny Facts from The Dr. Kate Museum


  • Pile in a single column the 1,000,000 pennies will make a column 5, 000 feet high.
  • Place side-by-side the pennies would produce a ribbon of copper for 11.84 miles.
  • If 10 pennies weigh 1.107 ounces, the 1,000,000 of them will weigh 6918.75 pounds or 3.459 tons.
  • 1,000,000 pennies placed side-by-side will cover an area of 3906.24 square feet.
  • In a solid mass the 1,000, 000 pennies would be equivalent to 2.212 cubic yards, which means that a 2 yard dump truck would not be able to haul them.
  • Coinage of the present bronze cent (derived from the Latin centum “hundred”) consisting of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc, began in 1864, and continued with the Indian head until 1909 when the bust of Lincoln was placed on the cent and contuse to date.
  • Between the dates 1909 to 1951 inclusive 18, 279,679,954 pennies were coined in the United States.
  • The million pennies of the Penny Parade is .00547 of the total amount minted or .547%.
  • If a man could have started collecting a million pennies a penny a day on the day of the birth of Christ, he would complete his collection on about November 6, 2737.”


World's Largest Penny Monument: world record set in Woodruff, Wisconsin

Inscription according to the Historical Marker Database


"The World’s Largest Penny was dedicated on May 29, 1954 as a tribute to the staff and students of Arbor Vitae-Woodruff School.


"This monument reflects Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb‘s dream for a local hospital, as well as the community spirit of Woodruff and Arbor Vitae residents and civic groups who donated labor and materials and organized fundraising activities. In the fall of 1952, Otto Burich and his geometry students led a district-wide campaign to collect one million pennies to raise funds for the hospital. Letters were mailed nationwide as part of the fundraising effort.


"Arbor Vitae-Woodruff grade school students even donated their allowances. In all, 1,700,000 pennies were collected in just 104 days from 48 states. On Memorial Day in 1953, 10,000 people attended the Million Penny Parade in Woodruff to celebrate the achievement.


"The World’s Largest Penny is made of concrete block, and is 10 feet in diameter, 18 inches thick, and weighs 17,452 pounds. The students at Arbor Vitae-Woodruff School continued to collect millions of pennies to help fund the Dr. Kate Museum Memorial Scholarship.


"The enthusiastic students not only saved the hospital project, but they inspired the community and put the small town of Woodruff on the international map."

TESTIMONIALS from Trip Advisor


"This is truly a great place to visit. Start at the Dr. Kate Museum to learn about the significance of this penny and the impact this amazing woman made on the community.


"The story behind this largest penny made this a must-see and now to also honor the mission, effort, and resolve to build a hospital from spare penny contribution. That sounds like America to me! Great job and thanks for making America even greater for everyone. We saw that people are still contributing, including us, on that day we visited."


"Amazing to learn that pennies collected paid to build a hospital. Interesting bit of history and fun to see the worlds largest penny!"

World's Largest Penny


Address: 820 3rd Ave, Woodruff, WI 54568, United States

Hours: Open 24 hours

Directions: At the corner of 2nd Ave. and Hemlock St. One block west of US 51 and two blocks south of Hwy 47.

45° 53.703′ N, 89° 42.002′ W

Related WORLD RECORDS:

The GUINNESS WORLD RECORD for the Longest penny farthing stack was set by British Ordinary Enthusiasts, who created a self-supporting line of 131 penny farthing bicycles in Abbey Park, Leicester, UK on 27 July 2003. In accordance with the rules, the line was held for three minutes.


GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS also recognized the world record for the largest penny-farthing racing championship; it is the National Penny Farthing Championship held in Evandale, Tasmania, Australia, with 15 separate events.

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