Pressed Pennies are always a great inexpensive souvenir to bring home with you from the parks, and the interest in these fun souvenirs has become more popular at Disney Parks over the last year or so. These machines can be found in resort gift shops, ride gift shops, select gift shops, even in Downtown Disney and offer a wide variety of designs to choose from. There are also currently two machines at the Port Canaveral Disney Cruise Line Terminal! Pressed Penny machines are easy to use too. Guests pressing pennies just put two quarters in the payment slot, and a penny in the special penny slot, pick their design and then turn a giant crank while watching the gears inside the machine turn. Once the penny has been pressed it drops out of it’s press into a vending machine style dispenser area. Guests then put them into special pressed penny books which can be bought throughout the parks, turn them into jewelry and even make framed Mickey Heads out of them. There are also a few Pressed Quarter machines on Disney property, but these do not seem to be as popular as the Pressed Penny machines, perhaps because of the cost? Pressed Quarter machines cost a dollar to use the machine, and of course the quarter you plan on pressing.
On April 1st a new Pressed Penny Machine featuring “Disney Heroines” very quietly appeared at Hollywood Studios, so quietly in fact very few people took notice of it. This month another one of these machines appeared in Downtown Disney. These new machines lack a hand crank but have more designs. Instead of inserting payment and the coin you want to have pressed, the new machines allow you to pay with cash, credit card, Apple Pay or Google Wallet. The biggest difference though in the machines isn’t how you pay, or how the penny is pressed, but that the machine is already loaded with circulated pennies. After you pay and choose your design the digital screen will show a hand turning a crank while the penny is processed.
The cost for Pressed Pennies now varies by how many designs you want. The new a 12-die machine in the “In Character Shop” will let you buy one design for $1, or all 12 designs for $10. The new Frozen machine at Once Upon A Toy in Downtown Disney has eight designs and you can buy one design for $1, or all 8 for $5.
If you are planning on visiting Walt Disney World or Disneyland and would like to know where you can find Pressed Penny Machines you can visit the parks official merchandise site for a printable up to date map! There has been no word on if all of the original hand crack machines will slowly be swapped out for the new digital machines but for those that are proactive and take a quick peek at the Walt Disney World Penny Press map you will notice that Disney has in fact marked the new Downtown Disney machine!
Article Images Courtesy of Tonya Ham; Debbie Perkins Qualls; disneyparksmerchandise.com; Pinterest
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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Pressed penny machines the parks were meant to coincide with Walt’s vision and fond memories of Penny arcades and his visit to Tivoli that inspired the parks. Now they take credit cards? How obvious is it that the Park “visionaries” today just want your money. In these instances where money trumps visitor experience, I’m disappointed. That is not Walt Disney’s vision… but hey, check out the new Starbucks on the old-timey main street! Good coffee, nowhere to sit… get in, give us your money, get out! Next customer!
Also, what a drab looking machine!
Half the fun is turning the crank and watching the coin being pressed. I guess they are slowly removing the magic from the parks. Kids are too lazy to turn a crank? Disney will cater to that to get your extra 50 cents! I guess it costs more for less fun?