A while back, I shared some of my favourite free souvenirs from Disney World and this week it’s about the CHEAPEST souvenir at Disney – Pressed Pennies.
This souvenir will only set you back 51 cents – almost as good as free!
What Is A Pressed Penny?
I discovered pressed penny machines during my December 2007 trip and made a few for my babymoon travel scrapbook. Unfortunately I never had time to start or complete the said scrapbook so I carried the 3 pressed pennies in my wallet for 5 years.
If you’ve never come across a pressed penny machine before, it’s a machine that presses a penny into a flat oval shape and then imprints a design on it.
For $0.51 you can get a design imprinted onto a penny and for $1.25 you can get designs imprinted on a quarter. There are a few pressed quarter machines at WDW but they are definitely not as popular as the penny machines.
Pressed coins are an affordable souvenir option – especially for those parents (myself included) with kids who have a bad case of the “Can I have…”s. It doesn’t take up a lot of space too as our suitcases are usually filled with baby gear.
They Are Everywhere!
These coin pressing machines are everywhere! Inside each of the parks, at the resorts and many can be found in Disney Springs.
Every major attraction or ride has a penny machine located near the exit or the gift shop that you end up in after the ride (great planning on Disney’s part!). The designs usually have the name of the attraction or a character that was featured in the show or ride.
We didn’t really expect our daughter to get into the whole penny pressing thing but were quite surprised that she was the one that kept looking for the machines while we toured the parks and resorts.
All week long she searched for machines that would press her favourite characters (Princesses, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Duffy) onto pennies.
We eventually ended up buying a Penny Collection book ($7.95) because she ended up “making” over 20 pennies (to split with her younger brother she said).
We wanted way to keep them organized and safe instead of having to carry them in my wallet again for another 5 years. When we got home, the 3 pennies that had been in my wallet for were also added into her book.
There’s plenty of empty slots left and our daughter says she will be packing this book into her suitcase for our next visit to Disney World. Time to start saving some pennies! Canadians, since we don’t have pennies anymore, bring nickels and have them exchanged for pennies when you get to the US.
You can get list of machine locations for each park at Guest Relations.
Happy Coin Collecting!
There you have it. A Disney souvenir that for under $1 (or $2 if you go the pressed quarter route – there’s 6 slots in the book shown above for pressed quarters.)!
Although if your children are anything like mine it may end up costing you more than 51 cents. Still a lot more affordable than some of the plush dolls we saw in the gift shops.
Do you have a pressed coin collection? If yes, where are they from?
Have You Read These?
9 Practical Gift Ideas for Families Heading to Walt Disney World
Celebrating the Holidays at Disney World – Travel Tips for Families
Everything You Need to Know About Disney World Value Resorts
I love pressed pennies! We have them from San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park, Lego Land California, Sea World, Las Vegas, Niagara Falls, Canada’s Wonderland, Toronto Zoo, etc….
I’ve been trying to look for a generic pressed penny passport. All our pennies are in a spice jar right now – LOL!
Hmmm… I’m not sure where to find a generic one. You could always try using baseball card holder pages or stamp collector pages (in a binder) although those slots are much bigger so you’d have to stick the pennies on a piece of cardstock to keep them in place. You must have many if they’re in a spice jar! Good thing you aren’t carrying them around in a wallet. HA HA!
I honestly had never seen or heard of pressed pennies until I lived in Corpus Christi, TX for awhile and went to the Texas State Aquarium. I still have that pressed penny kept in a safe place. 🙂 (and the Aquarium is awesome btw…)
I have a lot of pressed pennies from tourist attractions…I have no idea where they are currently, I used to keep them in my jewelry box. It is a great souvenir, and I am totally keeping this in my hat when my daughter gets older and wants everything in sight!
What a great souvenir! Love the idea that you can keep them in a book. My boys would love this! Great idea for family travel.
Thank you for linking up to Travel Tuesday and sharing your tips!
Kerrie
http://www.familyfoodandtravel.com
When we went to Disney pins were the big thing, love the pressed pennies!
Pins are still very popular Judy but pennies are much more affordable 🙂 We like to do both but have maybe less than 10 pins.
Hello, KoaP.
Cool idea. I have some of these from other amusement parks. As you mentioned they can be collector items and are a great, affordable and durable souvenir that one can keep indefinitely. I did not know there were websites about them or that one could get a list of the machine locations for each park at Guest Relations or a website. Really great post. Thank you, Kids on a Plane.
Oh, wow. That’s cool. I didn’t know it’s that cheap! I will have to get this next time.
I hadn’t heard of this souvenir! Great collection for any child to have!
We have gotten these when we were in Niagara Falls and places in Vancouver. They make a great little souvenir!
I had never heard of a pressed penny machine. What an interesting idea! (And great that they’re inexpensive and don’t take up much space).
When I was in England many years ago, my dad taught us to put pence pieces on the railway tracks so the train could run over them. I still have one to this day, almost 40 years later! Thanks for this post!
Oh that is a great idea Anne! So wonderful to hear you have them 40 years later 🙂
I love these 🙂 I still have mine from when I was a child
Love this idea so much!
If you are in the Orlando area for a few days, in addition to Disney, Universal Studios also has a few machines in their park. I have one with the Hulk for their Islands of Adventure. I’d be shocked if they don’t have one with Harry Potter on it.
Also if you are looking for additional books for the elongated coins, I’d recommend Amazon or eBay. eBay has them for under $7 including shipping. The pictures of the Disney book looks really nice though and for Disney elongateds, I would prefer to use that over a general coin book.
Also, http://www.pennycollector.com/arealist.aspx has a list of machines in various cities sorted by state. They update the status on the site as well so hopefully you aren’t taking a detour to find the machine you are looking for is gone.
Where did u get your pressed penny book? I love the front of it!
Hi Sarah,
You can find the book at the gift shops in all four parks at Disney World. They’re also available at the Disney Resort hotel gift shops too. If I remember correctly, I think it was under $10 when we bought it?
It has a lot of space for multiple pennies (and a few for quarters too) – we haven’t filled it up yet!
Hope this helps!
Cheryl
I just returned from Walt Disney World with around 80 pressed pennies. Yes, the website to find locations for specific characters that you are missing is a great tool. Go to a coin dealer and purchase uncirculated pennies…I purchased rolls for the year I got married and the year for when my kids were born. I read on a site that you should place the head of the penny away from the quarters and have a chance that the year of the penny can be seen once pressed. Going to position them on a picture board in the shape of a Mickey head and frame it. My own piece of art.
Hi Cheryl!
I was wondering if you knew which slot in the quarter pressed machines is the one to get pressed? I am collecting new quarters to be the pressed ones and I was hoping someone might have an idea on this.
Hi Andrea,
The machines have labels on them – which one is for the coin to be pressed and the others for payment. If I remember correctly, the right most slot is the one for the coin being pressed.
Hope this helps!
Cheryl