I honestly would have thought Disney may have taken a bit of a break on releasing new pressed pennies after the onslaught we encountered with the 50th Anniversary (53 pennies released), but that was not the case. Thinking I may have a down day and could catch up on some paperwork and blog updates when I suddenly received a message from a friend about some new Zootopia pennies she found. I immediately inquired for more information, then jumped in my car and headed over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Once inside the park I didn’t have too far to walk. Just over the bridge heading towards the Tree of Life I took a left turn and the large gift shop on that side was where I was headed. It’s called the Island Mercantile and if you’ve been tagging along with me lately this place is probably pretty familiar. Earlier this year this was home to the dated 2021 Pluto penny design, which more recently had been removed and replaced with the Dante (from Coco) 50th Anniversary penny design. Well now that has changed once again.

Let’s take a quick side trip before getting back to the Island Mercantile. On the opposite side of this main pathway leading to the Tree of Life is another large souvenir shop called Discovery Island Co. This place already had two existing penny machines, and now that machine from Island Mercantile has been moved over here for a total of three machines. So if you are in the midst of hunting down those really cool 50th Anniversary pennies make sure to visit the Discovery Island Co.

Okay now back to our main story here about the Island Mercantile. If you visit the set of doors which is closest to the Pandora (Avatar) side of the park, that is where this brand new machine has been placed.

The cabinet has a nice wood grain look to it. I thought it would have been more fun to see it themed more around Zootopia (whatever that may be) but I guess the machine itself is not too important rather we are interested in the penny designs.

This brand new set includes pennies with Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, Flash, Finnick, Chief Logo, Mayor Lionheart, Gazelle and Yak. I was a little sad to see that there was no design for the little lamb Bellwether, or even one of my favorites Officer Clawhauser. In any case this does cover many of the main characters and I like that they all include the cool Zootopia logo as a nice touch.

There has been rumors swirling for quite awhile that a Zootopia expansion to Animal Kingdom may happen, but so far nothing official for here in Florida. Shanghai Disneyland however is working on this exact project so maybe if it’s successful we may see it here in the future.

Thanks for hanging out with me again today and chatting about pressed pennies. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend and as always Keep on Pressing!

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