I was visited the American Dream mega mall up in north New Jersey during a recent work trip and had already visited a few places inside the mall pressing as many pennies as I could before they closed for the evening. With only about a half hour left I quickly headed towards my last stop which was the Dreamworks Water Park.

Obviously being this late in the evening the water park was no longer accepting visitors so I could only visit the front area. Thankfully this was where their four penny machines were located. I was worried they would be behind the ticket area but that wasn’t the case.

When facing the front of the water park on the right side there were a few large pillars and two of the penny machines. One was themed for the How to Train your Dragon movie, and the second was Shrek.

On the left side of the entrance near another support pillar where the other two machines, one themed for the Madagascar movies, and the last machine (my personal favorite) was for the Trolls movie.

At first glance these machines look really cool, plenty of color, neon lights and some fun looking penny designs. However as I mentioned in my post about the Nickelodeon Theme Park these machines were a nightmare to use. Each design cost $1.99, the machine does supply the penny (whoopee!) but does not accept cash. It’s credit / debit card only and after you swipe your card 4-5 times that card is then locked and cannot be used again at any of these machines. There is nothing wrong with your card, it’s apparently just a security feature they have on their credit card system. As you can imagine there were 16 pennies among these machines, 16 more at the Nickelodeon theme park, and one more at the Angry Birds mini-golf store was almost impossible.

You may also notice that in the above photo of the pennies I was only able to collect eight of them from these four machines. Only the Trolls and Shrek machines were working and even then many of the designs were rolling short which honestly is unacceptable at the $1.99 price point these should come out better. Since being home I’ve tried reaching out to the water park and theme park to see if there was someway I could get the designs from the two machines that were not working and so far no one has been able to help. I’ve also inquired with some friends and family to help the next time they visit so fingers crossed sometime soon I may be able to get those last two sets.

My night had finally come to an end and it was time to head back to my hotel and fly home to Florida the following morning. It was a nice short trip back to see some co-works, friends and family plus visit some restaurants I’ve missed since leaving the state. I’ll be back soon and hopefully can work on finding some more Garden State pressed pennies. Keep on Pressing!

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While visiting New Jersey for work event I was spending one of my evenings at the American Dream Mall. This place was huge and based on my research had quite a few pressed penny machines that I was determinate to find and collect.

My next stop was at the Angry Birds “Not So” Mini Golf Club. This was an actual mini-golf course you could play, and from what I could see the holes looks really interesting.

They were themed around how the game works, and plenty of the recognizable Angry Birds were around for plenty of photographs.

Unfortunately on this trip I didn’t have time to play a round so instead I was sticking to just the gift shop.

The store wan’t too big, but had plenty of Angry Bird merchandise. So many plush toys, t-shirts, sweaters and all the classic items you would find in themed store like this.

In the back of the store near a drink cooler is where I found the penny machine. This was another of those unique acrylic cabinet machines I had encountered inside the Nickelodeon Theme Park so I wasn’t really looking forward to using it again.

I guess I shouldn’t complain about the penny machines in Florida being converted to $1 per penny. Here each design was $1.99 and it was credit / debit cards only. At least the machine supplied the penny.

Thankfully I didn’t have much issue with this machine and the pennies pressed pretty well. The one horizontal design came out a bit short but most of the design was still visible. This was a fun set with some of the familiar Angry Bird characters.

The clock was ticking on my visit to the American Dream mall with it almost about to close for the night but I still had one last place I needed to stop at for a few more pennies. Check back to see how my trip concludes. Keep on Pressing!

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During my trip back to New Jersey I had a free evening and drove up north to East Rutherford to check out the American Dream Mega Mall. From my research prior to the trip I knew there were a few places inside that were supposed to have penny machines, the hard part was trying to navigate this gigantic place to find them.

Because I was visiting the mall later in the evening many of the places were starting to close. I had hoped to go and check out the Legoland Discovery Center but had to settle for just visiting the attached store.

It was your pretty typical Lego store if you have ever visited one. Plenty of sets from all their different themes.

They even had a pick-a-brick wall where you can fill up a cup with loose lego bricks for a set price which seemed to be popular.

I even found some Disney while away from central Florida.

In the very back of the store is where I found the penny machine. It was $1 per design with pre-loaded pennies inside the machine. Thankfully I was able to insert $1 bills since my credit cards were having some issues from other machines inside the mall.

The pennies rolled nicely and I had no issues with this machine. The set included images of some Lego Minifigures including a Policeman, Life guard, Pizza Delivery guy, and the Statue of Liberty.

It’s always fun to check out a Lego store, and even more difficult to not walk out with hundreds of dollars worth of sets to work on. They have really gotten creative with their sets and I limit myself to only a few each year so it doesn’t get out of control. With these new pressed pennies in my possession I still had a couple more stops I needed to try and make before the mall closed for the evening. Stay tuned to see where I visit next. Keep on Pressing.

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I had a short trip recently back to New Jersey for my work anniversary. There were a bunch of different events going on while I was there, but after the work day I wanted to try and find some new elongated coins. About an hour north on the Turnpike I found myself at the American Dream Mega Mall.

Now this place has quite the history to it. For as long as I lived in New Jersey it was always in development, then delays, then bankruptcy, and multiple owners. It seems like it was never going to open. Then as fate would have it, once I moved out of the state to Florida it finally opened at least most of it opened.

This place is huge, and includes an indoor ice rink, and indoor ski hill, water park, hundreds of retail stores, and aquarium and the Nickelodeon Universe indoor theme park.

The pictures don’t do this place justice. It’s a giant location with a glass ceiling that fills the space with natural light. Inside are different areas of the park all themed around different Nickelodeon shows.

Each area was also for a specific age group. Most of the attractions here I think would be for younger guests, but there were couple roller coasters for older visitors.

The pathways were nice and wide accommodating larger crowds. Thankfully during my visit later in the evening there weren’t too many people.

This was a big place but it was still amazing to see how they were able to cram so many different attractions inside.

I wish I had more time to actually ride some of the coasters, unfortunately time was not on my side and I had a whole lot of pressed pennies to try and find.

The theme park had four different penny machines and they were all located right next to each other just outside of the restrooms near the Rugrats Carousel. At first glance these machines looked fantastic, with a nice acrylic cabinet, plenty of neon lights and even built in LCD screens. I could have done without the large wheel to press the coins as I just find it kind of cumbersome. However as I would soon find out these machines were a nightmare.

I was eventually able to press all of the penny designs, four from each machine for a total of 16 pennies. The issue is that these machines cost $1.99 for each design, and cash is not accepted. It’s credit / debit card only but then their system only allows you to use the same card 4-5 times then that card is locked and can’t be reused. I had heard about this issue from another collector and decided to bring a few pre-loaded visa gift cards to help but even then I was running into issues and had to start using my own personal credit cards and even debit card just to get all of them. I can’t imagine there is that much fraud happening with these machines, but it was a major inconvenience for me and I’m sure anyone else that wants to try and collect all of them.

The theme park was fun to walk through and visit, hopefully I can go again on a future trip and actually try some of the attractions. I was glad to get the pennies but it was such a terrible experience using those machines that even if they release new designs I probably wouldn’t bother. I still had a little bit of time before the mall was closing and there were a few more penny machines to try and use so stay tuned. Keep on Pressing

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