To try and keep up with all the new pressed penny machines I spend a lot of my “spare” time looking at online blogs, websites and reading emails, tweets and blog/vlog comments.  I always make sure to have little baggies of quarters and pennies on the ready should a new machine be posted so I can try to go visit it as soon as possible.  However when I read about these new penny machines that were released at the Magic Kingdom they threw me for a bit of a loop.  A cost increase!

To see what exactly was going on I headed into the park and made my way towards the Main Street Train Station.

First I wanted to go upstairs and check out the Train that is currently just being kept there since the actual track around the park is being relocated.  This is all due to the new Tron roller coaster currently being built over by Space Mountain.

This does make for a fun little attraction where you can get up and personal with the steam engine.

I don’t think many people realize that you can still come up here to check out the train.  You can’t get into the engine, but there are engineers around that will answer your questions.

You can look inside the engine, and they also have the pull cord for the steam whistle dangling out the window for kids (of all ages) to pull periodically.

After we finished visiting with the train, we headed inside and down the stairs to the first level.

Located just behind the staircases on the first floor is where the two new penny machines were found.  Previously in this spot were two 3-design machines, one was a penny press and the other was a quarter press.  Now both machines are 4-design penny press manual machines.

The first machine we checked out was on the left side.  As you can see in the above picture shows the new price at $1 per penny.  I will review at the bottom how to use the machine and the different payment options.

 

This first set of pennies had some cute designs with Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  One did say “Main Street” on it, and another design had Mickey in a Stream Engine.

The second machine on the right side also $1 per design and supplied the pennies.

 

This set has four more 2019 designs with images of Captain Hooks Pirate Ship, Cinderella’s Castle, Space Mountain, and Dumbo.  I always like these dated designs as they make for a fun souvenir each year.  But this is going to make for quite the project in 2020 to replace all these designs plus the other 2019 coins all over the property.

After pressing all these new coins I decided to walk around the park and see if any more of these new $1 penny machines had shown up and I’ll post separately around that so stay tuned.

Now before we finish up let me review how payment on these new machines works.  I did talk with someone that works on these machines and there have been a lot of issues with them already.  Apparently, people are not reading the instructions correction since the process it a bit different so just make sure to follow those on machine instructions.

The machine supplies the penny so you can no longer use your own preferred pennies.  If you are using cash, you turn the handle until the arrow lines up with the design you want to press.  Then insert your $1 bill, wait a few seconds until you hear the penny drop in place and then start turning the handle as per usual process.  The machine will not accept larger than a $1 bill as it doesn’t give change.  If you want to get the entire set you would need to repeat the above 4 times.  The machine does also accept credit cards or mobile payment like ApplePay.  If you use this method to pay it only allows you to pay for the entire set and charges your card $4.  Just make sure you line up the arrow to one of the designs, then swipe your card and wait for it to be approved.  Then you will hear the first penny drop in place and you just keep turning the handle and all 4 designs will press one after the other.

I witnessed someone swipe their debit card and then only roll one penny and walk away.  As I mentioned above the machine still charges you the full $4 so make sure you press all 4 of your designs.  I called the family back over and explained it to them so they could press the other 3 pennies.  I believe that some new instructions will be placed on these machines in the future to try and help make sure they are working properly and being used correctly.