Pressed Penny Machines still exist?

[Max G]

Especially for kids, there's something about putting your regular penny in and getting it back pressed. It's not the same if you only see the 'after' and aren't more of a direct participant in the process..

Disney seem to be forgetting 'actual guest experience' in so many of their changes.

I'm usually all about NOT handling real money and would prefer to always use a credit card or magicband, except in this case.
I can see the children in my family losing interest in this if they aren't involved in the process of putting the penny in themselves.

 

[MaryKM]

I'm usually all about NOT handling real money and would prefer to always use a credit card or magicband, except in this case.
I can see the children in my family losing interest in this if they aren't involved in the process of putting the penny in themselves.

Couldn't agree more with this. There's something about the tangible factor of the 51 cent machines that makes it appealing for us. I remember when my daughter was too small to crank them herself, and that big feeling of accomplishment that came when she could do it without help.
Not to mention that between trips we have fun saving quarters and sorting pennies (pre 1981), and storing them in our emptied out mini-M&M tubes... it is part of the waiting game for us. The machines that choose the pennies for you tend to give new coins that are barely recognizable.
Bummed they are getting rid of the "old school" machines but thankful I saw this before our trip so I don't bring an army of coins to only use 1/3 of them.

 

[bayportkat]

Heading out tomorrow and had lots of shiny pennies- but now seeing I should go back and find older pennies instead?? What is the negative to using the new pennies?

 

[Chrizwald]

Heading out tomorrow and had lots of shiny pennies- but now seeing I should go back and find older pennies instead?? What is the negative to using the new pennies?

There's a couple of VERY specific penny-pressing sites out there. But basically, the pennies before 1982 are 100% copper, and after that is copper-zinc. apparently they don't roll out as well, so the bottom of your print will get cut off, or at the very least it won't be matchy-matchy with how long the top is.

 

[concertkatie]

Zinc pennies (after 1982) can have "streaks" of zinc through the design. Some people think it looks cool and some people hate it. It's all about your preference. I've noticed that really shiny and new zinc coins sometimes have less of a streak to it then ones you'd find that have been circulated for a bit.

I'm torn on the machines turning to CC machines - on the one hand it is nice to just stumble upon a machine and not need to be "prepared" with the quarters and pennies - but sometimes that is half the fun of preparing for a trip - mapping them all out and seeing how many coins you need.

 

[Kestryl]

so for the $1 do i need dollar singles to carry around? or do those new machines take cc? wish you can just scan your magic bands!

Unless it’s changed since May, if you want one penny you need a dollar bill. The credit card option is only for people buying the full set (like 8 pennies) for $5.

I got like 15 pennies back in May in a combination of traditional 51 cent machines and $1 automatic machines.

 

[TJsMomSarahJane]

This is such a bummer. One of our favorite things to do is hunt down the new machines and get the pennies. We were okay spending the $0.51, but a buck for a penny is yuck.

Oh well. Time to roll the coins we had saved up and cash them in!

 

[100AcreWood]

Thanks for the responses everyone. We're going in November so I'll bring about 1/2 what I usually do and hope we can still find some 51 cent machines!

 

[BrianL]

Not liking this. I don't want 'shiny' pennies. I want good, solid copper ones that don't smear into a barely recognizable blend.
And a dollar ?? Greedy bassets....

The new machines don't use pennies at all, but rather blanks. I don't know what they are composed of, but they do look good and shiny. On most of these machines they are $1 for one or you can get all 8 designs for $5 - still costs more but at least it's a little better.

 

[chartle]

The problem is they are replacing the 50 cent plus the penny to be squished machines (where you can use the penny of your choice) to new machines which cost $1 and provide the penny, so you get what they give you.

The first one of these I recall seeing was at our local Amusement Park Kennywood. They used all new probably uncirculated pennies.

 

[kevind2112]

This is a bummer. We only started collecting pennies in 2015. It was a fun little thing to do in the parks that wasn't too expensive. I actually enjoyed collecting and cleaning the pre-1982 pennies and preparing to use them. We video record most of our penny pressings, just because it was something cute for the family to look back on, especially the hand crank ones. Oh well....

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Not liking this. I don't want 'shiny' pennies. I want good, solid copper ones that don't smear into a barely recognizable blend.
And a dollar ?? Greedy bassets....

I'm with you on this one.

 

[mckenk]

Awww, this really sucks. My kids had so much fun collecting pressed pennies on our last trip. I agree, it is just more fun for them to put their real penny in there and see it transformed. And doubling the price??? Just another money grab.

 

[dachsie]

I always try to collect pressed pennies for each resort I stay at. Well, at CBR last month, they did not have a resort specific one. They had the machine with 1 for $1 or 8 for $5 but there were pirate themed - nothing that said the resort on them. Was kinda bummed.

 

[beercity]

There are some pressed DIME machines as well. I have a stack of old silver dimes to press on my next trip.

 

[SarahSnow]

Our upcoming trip will be the first that I will not be bringing any quarters or pennies for the machines, unfortunately they are phasing out the original machines for the dollar ones and I'm just not a fan of those. I want to put my own penny in and not pay double the price for a "shiny penny"

 

[only hope]

Our upcoming trip will be the first that I will not be bringing any quarters or pennies for the machines, unfortunately they are phasing out the original machines for the dollar ones and I'm just not a fan of those. I want to put my own penny in and not pay double the price for a "shiny penny"

About half the machines at HS are the old .51 ones, as of yesterday. Epcot has at least one old machine, in Mouse Gear. It’s got a Mickey 90th birthday design. I think MK is totally switched over. So if you’re coming soon, there will probably still be some .51 machines.

 

[jilldw]

We were there in the middle of August. In MK we found a mix of machines. There were still 51 cent machines for sure. One I specifically remember was by the bathrooms by the sunglasses hut. We did find more 51machines but they may be gone. In HS I found a bunch of machines side by side around the brown derby area. I wasn’t the only one with an m&m roll in one hand getting one of everything. In Epcot quite a few of the countries still had them. And had some of the Duffy pennies which I was trying to find for my son. The kids don’t think the new machines are cool so once they all flip over to dollars we will probably do very few pennies. It’s a shame.

 

[Chrizwald]

Any updates on penny machines? We're going in November and i'm trying to decide if we should bother bringing pennies if the machines are gone.

 

[ArielRae]

Was just there Sept 24th-28th and saw a bunch of these dollar/credit card penny presses. Didn’t notice many old school penny press machines.