Before our first Disney World trip, I prepared my step-son for the penny press machines. I thought he might like a penny here or there to put in the scrapbook. Little did I know this was the beginning of a penny pressing palooza.
Since then every walk in the park is a pre-meditated prowl for the penny press machines. Yes, it’s 51 cents to get a cent back…but it’s relatively inexpensive and he really enjoys it. I’d much rather have him collect those and have them forever than to invest $11 in a toy that lights up during the parade and/or fireworks and breaks before either is finished.
The penny press situation can quickly become trouble if you aren’t prepared. Cutting across oncoming traffic to run to a penny press, dig through the fanny pack, back pack, or camera bag for pennies and quarters is frustrating and time consuming. I’ve come up with simple solutions that will make your penny pressing palooza problem free.
1. Buy a roll ($.50) of NEW pennies from the bank. The penny you put in the machine is the one that gets pressed, the shinier the penny the better it will look when pressed. Start asking your bank in advance, new pennies aren’t always in circulation.
2. Start collecting quarters. Whether you want your kids to raid their piggy banks or you want to just purchase a roll, you’ll need 2 quarters for each penny you want to press.
3. Collection container-The best thing you could do as a penny presser is have a container of your pennies and quarters ready to go. Candy containers work great for this-especially containers from M&M mini’s. We take the label off and make our own decorative penny containers. Then you stack them in layers: 2 quarters, 1 penny; 2 quarters, 1 penny…repeat until it’s full. This way when you approach the penny machine all you have to do is pop the top and slightly tip the container until 2 quarters and a penny fall out. No muss, no fuss and you’re ready to press in no time!
4. Grab a press penny receptacle-a tiny ziploc bag from your local craft store works perfectly, or an empty change purse. This helps you keep all your pressed pennies together and you can put them in the pressed penny book at the end of the night. Carrying the book around all day is cumbersome, it gets very heavy. Not to mention the penny’s are hot after they are pressed and the sleeves in the book are plastic…so you end up with a steamy sticky mess trying to get them in there during the heat of the day. Drop them in a change purse and move on. Keep them all in one place so you don’t have miscellaneous pennies going into the washer and dryer later on.
5. Plan ahead and print the list. There’s no reason to drive yourself crazy and waste time running around the parks wondering where the next machine is or if it’s worth while. The Penny Press will tell you what’s where and this site is reliable and is updated often.
How about you do you collect the Pressed Pennies at Walt Disney World? Let me know in the comment box below.
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My hubby has been collecting these “squished pennies” for a couple years now and has three books full. We need to find a fourth book this trip. The tip about the change purse is a great one. He usually sticks them in his pocket and I am sure he has probably lost a few along the way … not to mention his pants getting heavier. : o )
We will definitely be starting a new collection 🙂 can’t wait.
thanks for the tips.
We collected when we went in February. My kids LOVED it! My son still looks at his collection nearly every day! The favorite machines were the manual crank machines. It took some work to crank them, but they loved doing it themselves! It was definitely better than coming home with plastic toys that would break within days!
We’ve been collecting the pennies for several yrs now whenever we go on vacation. We just got back from Disney & had so much fun searching for the penny machines. Especially in the different countries in Epcot. One thing to know, in Epcot, they do not have the machines in China or Japan. You can only get their coins from the gift shop @ the International Gateway, which I believe was right after Canada. We had a container full of change that we were planning on cashing in b4 our trip but never got a chance to, so all that change came in handy for the penny machines. We were able to fill up one whole book by the end of our trip. There are also a few qtr machines. These are $1.25 & it presses on a qtr. We only got a couple of these. Happy penny hunting! :0)
We just started collecting pressed pennies. We got a few our April trip then spent our get-a-way in December finding all the machines. If you forget a list they will print them for you at Guest Services. Also, I had my pennies/Quarters all prepared in a giant M&M container in my carry on and security dumped them all out 🙁 Most cashiers are more than happy to make change for you and some machines have quarter dispensers right next to the machines. Finally, have some extra quarters because there are quarter machines too.
Good tip on collecting them into a coin purse and then putting them into the collector’s books each evening. That is a great time saver because it’s true: those books get heavy after a while.
With regard to #1, find pennies pre mid-1982 as they are all copper. Post mid-1982, they converted to zinc with copper plating. The all copper pennies work better and don’t end up with funny zinc streaks in them. Just use some vinegar and salt to clean them to make them shiny. (Or use ketchup).
One of our days last trip my Wife and I went all over the parks specifically to hunt for penny presses. It was a blast.We now have quite a few,but not nearly as many as we will with the list.It’s a fun way to check out more than just the “E” ticket rides (I’m dating myself!)
Oh my word, my son will LOVE this! I didn’t even know there were presses at WDW. I’ll let you know how many we get! Thanks!! =)