Disney’s 100th Anniversary. So far we have collected pressed pennies and medallions for both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, honestly I thought we were done. But before we could close out the coin collecting sets for the 100th Anniversary our friends over at the Disney Coin Pressers Facebook Group shared one last set. This one however is not in any of the theme parks, instead they can be found throughout the United States at retailers like Amazon, Kroger and Walmart.

Frankford Candy company was founded in 1947. Starting with just chocolates, has since expanded to include dummies, lollipops, gift sets and more including this the infamous Frankford Wonder Ball. There have been different versions in the past, but this latest edition is helping to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary.

Inside each box is a hollow ball of chocolate filled with little candy pieces which are only somewhat edible in my opinion. The candies were giving me flashbacks of those Flintstone vitamins I used to eat as a kid but with lest fruity flavor. The chocolate was definitely not to my liking, however my kids loved it so go figure.

Candy aside, what I was really here for was a special surprise. Inside each box is one metal coin with a Disney Character on it. I visited a few stores in my area and had the best success at Walmart and as you can see bought as many as I could. To be honest the above picture only shows the first batch I found, this was a project that went on for a few weeks.

There are 22 standard coins to collect, and 3 rare chrome coins for a total of 25 coins in the entire set. The packaging was colorful and I honestly liked the design of it. Once you tore open the top the foil wrapped chocolate ball could easily be removed and in the bottom was a piece of folded cardboard that said “Look Prize Below!” helping to keep our coin safe.

I quickly tore into each box to see which coins I was able to collect. Five boxes, led to 10 boxes, then 15 and more. In my spare time I would visit any Walmart within a reasonable driving distance always on the look for more Wonder Balls. I was so obsessed that even during a family vacation to Colorado (spoiler, stay tuned for posts all about that adventure. So many pressed pennies!) I visited a few stores there hoping for those last few coins to finish up the set.

I almost forgot to show the reverse side of the coins. All coins had the same back image of the Disney 100 logo and then a bunch of copyright details. Nothing too extraordinary, but better than just being blank I guess.

Eventually I got to the point where every Wonder Ball I purchased just presented me with a duplicate coin I already had. As you can see in the above image I had quite a few duplicates and ended up only needing 4 coins to finish off the set. So I decided to save some money and headed to the Disney Coin Pressers Facebook group, posted a photo of my duplicate coins available for trade and my want list.

It didn’t take too long before I had secured enough trades to get the coins I needed. It’s always a wonderful feeling to finish off a set and even better when you are able to help other collectors with their sets at the same time.

Now that I had the entire set I needed a nice way to display and store them. I did think of just using my usual method of 2×2 cardboard flips and a 3-ring binder, but I remembered that inside each Wonder Ball box you would get a small checklist for the coin set. On this checklist was an offer to get a free collector’s coin book, and designed for the Disney 100th. Plus it was completely free, all I needed to do was go to the company’s website and fill out a form along with a photo of 6 coins and their corresponding box bar codes.

The only issue was that it could take 6-8 weeks to then arrive in my mail and I will admit Frankford took every single one of those days plus a few more before the booklet finally arrived.

The booklet is a tri-fold design made of pretty rigid cardboard. There are cutouts for each coin with a faded image of each design. My only real complaint about this booklet is the cutouts are slightly larger than the actual coins so they do not fit in there snuggly like other similar booklets from coin collecting supply companies.

They did include a strip of adhesive circles so you can secure the coins into the booklet but if you are like me this is probably not the most ideal option for your collection. I don’t think I’ll be removing the coins any time soon, however when I do I’m sure those sticky dots will either damage the booklet, leave a gross residue on the coin or more likely both.

I spend a lot of time in the theme parks collecting pressed pennies and medallions which I absolutely love. But this coin set just got me hooked in a different manner. It reminded me of collecting sports cards when I was a kid, not knowing what you would get in each pack, and that thrill of the hunt was just so much fun. I may have become a bit obsessed and that’s okay in my mind. The coins are of pretty high quality, they are solid and quite heavy. I have seen that Frankford offers some other similar coin sets and I’m already getting the itch to maybe try and collect those as well. Just when I’m out they drag me back in.

Keep on Collecting!

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