Disneyland Pressed Pennies
Disneyland is one of many places where I can indulge in my favorite souvenir habit, pressed pennies. Pressed pennies, also called elongated pennies, are fairly inexpensive souvenirs, and help keep my kids busy while waiting on Main Street before the park opens. With over 100 places in Disneyland, California Adventure and Downtown Disney, you will need to bring a roll or two of quarters to make sure you get every one.
On our last day in the park last month, we ran into a super helpful cast member in California Adventures, who gave me 5 tips for successful pressed pennies at Disneyland:
1. Use pre-1982 pennies – they contain more copper and thus hold their (new) shape better. You can buy rolls of these older pennies on Ebay in preparation.
2. Pickup a copy of the Pressed Penny Map at the Guest Services Desk when you enter the park. Takes the guessing out of where all the stations are. Also, some of the machines are only around for a short period of time, so you want to be sure to add those to your collection while they are available.
3. When you put your penny in the slot, along with the quarters, make sure the head of the penny is facing out and is upright.
4. Be careful when cleaning your pressed pennies – some are highly valuable and harsh cleaners can ruin them. Doubtful that would be a problem for most of us casual collectors, but good to know, just in case someone gifts you a rare Disney elongated coin (that is the fancy, collector name for pressed pennies).
5. If you are going to press more than a couple pennies, you might want to invest in a pressed penny book to store your loot. You can find these at most of the shops in the Park.
Check out Park Pennies for more detailed information, once you get your collection going. Or, consider this charm bracelet as a great way to remember your trips. Pressing pennies is one of our favorite souvenirs, no matter where we visit.
Do you have any pressed penny tips to share?
Planning a trip to Disneyland? Here are additional resources:
Things I Learned at the Disneyland Resort
Photo courtesy of Pressedpennies.com.
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8 Responses
“51-cent” pennies is what we call them, and we collect them wherever we go on our travels. Thanks for the hints about how to make them come out better. I’ll start holding onto older pennies just for this purpose!
yeah, me too. Now I am obsessively looking at all the pennies in my wallet to save the ones that are pre-82!
My kids love collecting the pressed pennies, too. We bought a pressed penny book as a souvenier at Disney World in Florida for around $8–it is a great keepsake from the park with a picture of the castle and Disney characters all over it. Plus, it hold a lot of pennies–probably 80 or more. My only disappointment with the pressed pennies is I see a lot of machines that charge 75 cents or even a dollar to press the pennies, which becomes a bit of a rip off.
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Hello just thought I’d say hello, this is my first time using any kind of forum. I’m 25 from Sydney Australia, been training for about 4 years, pretty hard for the past year and a half. I’m about 5’8 and weigh 101kg currently bulking and hoping to compete earliest May 2010 as a novice. My main aim is to come in as conditioned as possible, this will be hard as I have never done this and I’m pretty scared/nervous but I know I can do it. So yeah that’s a bit about me thanks for reading
Quads
This gives me inspiration. Now i feel to start collecting these pretty pennies. Thanks for the info man.
Classic. I had my first pressed penny when I was just a kid. They were so fascinating when I was young.