I’m sure you realize by now that I visit the Walt Disney World parks quite often, and even Disneyland out on the west coast a few times. However I’ve never visited any of the international parks, and hope to do so sometime in the future. Even though I’ve never been there that doesn’t stop me from following news about them whether it pertains to new attractions, merchandise or food. Among all those parks the items released in Tokyo Disney almost always blow me away.

I remember seeing things like a hand soap dispenser that would dollop soap in the shape of a mickey head. It was so simple but something I’d never seen before. Food items like little mocha ice creams designed to look like the little green men from Toy story, or even an incredible Curry dish with the rice shaped like Baymax from Big Hero 6. Of course they have more standard souvenirs like clothing, pins and yes even elongated coins or what they refer to as medallions.

A few months ago as I was perusing TikTok I came across a video of a new souvenir medallion book available in the Tokyo Disney Resort. At first glance it seems like a standard storage booklet, but a little further into the video there were some close up clips showing the inside and what appeared to be images of specific coin designs that were meant to be kept inside. I thought this was such a cool idea, definitely more interesting that just the plain books we have here in the States. I knew at that moment I wanted one but as I started looking into online resellers to acquire it the prices were astronomical. Instead I headed to Facebook and reached out to friend and fellow collector Betty who lives in Japan and graciously offered on her next trip to the parks to try and get one of the books and the specific coins to go inside. It took some time, and I can happily say that they arrived safely not too long ago.

The first photo above shows the front of the booklet. The cover has a three-dimensional map of the Tokyo Disneyland park on it with some of the iconic attractions. On the back, above photo is a similar style map of their second park Tokyo Disney Seas and some friendly faces along the bottom.

As we open the book, the first page has a clear pocket with a sheet of labels that can be used to organize your coin collection within this booklet. I’ll go over where these can be used shortly. On the other page is a combined map of both parks, and one additional storage sleeve at the bottom for any coin you like, but I’m sure you would save this for your absolute favorite.

Betty picked this one out for me and I think she made a fantastic choice. With the iconic castle in the center, Mickey and Minnie Mouse on either side and the resort copyright info along the bottom.

Let’s skip to the back pages of the booklet next. On these pages are additional sleeves for up to 30 coins. Underneath each sleeve is where you can attach those labels we found on the first page. This way you can document where you found each coin, or note them in any way you like.

Now let’s check out the main event of this booklet and what called out to my inner collector. On the left side is the Tokyo Disney Sea park map surrounded by eight elongated coin designs. One each for the different sections of the park like Port Discovery, Fantasy Springs and Mermaid Lagoon.

On the right side is the Tokyo Disneyland park map with seven coin designs around the perimeter featuring some recognizable lands like Fantsayland, Toontown, and Tomorrowland.

Here you can see the booklet with those specific coins collection and installed inside the protective sleeves. The machines there supply bright, shiny blank coins not actual currency and Betty does an amazing job keeping them so clean and fingerprint free.

Now the big question is do I think something like this will ever make it to the American parks. Unfortunately I doubt it, but I really wish they would. Even for a collector like me, I love this sort of small mini-set and storage idea and would definitely head out and get it for my own collection. Not to mention that I think this would be a fun activity for kids and their families to do while visiting. They can use it like a scavenger hunt throughout certain areas of the park, or maybe even a specific theme like Snow White, or Zootopia characters. The possibilities are endless.

However the issue is that at least here in the Florida parks, the machines are operated by an outside vendor, while Disney handles their own merchandising. I’m sure it would be quite the coordinated effort to try and release a coin booklet with specific coin designs and make sure those same designs are actually available in the park. Disney can’t even keep their mobile app updated with the penny machine locations. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that maybe they do try it out and I’ll be one of the first to work on it. Thanks again to Betty for all her effort in finding the booklet and then trekking all over the parks to get the coins to fill it up, I truly do appreciate it.

Enjoy the rest of your week and as always Keep on Pressing!

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