Inside a 1950's parking meter, where coins activate a clockwork mechanism that advances the timer from expired to as much as two hours.

Are those pennies?

There was a time you could put the coin in far enough to activate the mechanism and take it back out again.

people went to college paid for by father's who fixed these for a living

A coin buys up to two hours, yet somehow it always expires right as you turn the corner.

Yes, inflation back in the days was expensive- imagine changing all that machines to new prices. And nowadays in the era of electronic money it is just a matter of one database update.