I’ve been an avid collector of elongated coins (or pressed pennies) since I was a child. My first few coins came from some spare change that had piled up on the desk in our hotel room while on vacation in Walt Disney World resort. On our last day before heading home it was an easy way to use up the change that had previously been weighing us down. Years later I had found these coins in my childhood wallet that had been moved into my parents basement. Seeing them again immediately started the obsession to collect as many of these amazing little pieces of art that I could.
Now our family vacations, and weekend trips almost always focus around new locations that have pressed penny machines. It’s a great excuse to check out new places and see attractions sometimes off the beaten path. Usually for only a couple quarters and a penny you come away with a great souvenir, and you get to meet a lot of interesting people along the way. My wife is a saint for putting up with my obsession but I think she secretly enjoys it and the places we visit.
I’m an active member with TEC (The Elongated Collectors). A great place to get information and history about the hobby. Membership is very inexpensive and you get a quarterly newsletter that includes elongated coins every time. The members are all a wealth of information and are always happy to pass along their knowledge. Check out the link for more information. TECNews.org
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Come along for a unique journey across the country. Remember to always keep your eyes open for new machines and your pocket full of pennies.
Hi
I am a long time EC collector (since 1998) and a big Disney fan (I live in Orlando) and also a long time member of TEC. I am always looking for some trades, would you need some help getting some Disney cons?
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Hi Lester,
Thanks so much for the message. I do have some friends that are in Florida throughout the year but I’m always looking for help getting some Disney coins from time to time. I’ll be sure to keep your info and will reach out if I’m in need of any coins. Thanks again.
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David,
I’m heading to Disney in a week and a half with my family and my daughter loves pressed coins. I’ve scoured the internet looking for a current map of the coin machines and what they offer. The most recent ones I’ve found are from 2013. Would you be willing to email me your maps?
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Hi Brandon,
Thanks for the message. The maps I use are were actually from another site which I then modify in photoshop for my own personal use listing just the machines I need to visit. The machine locations I know from previous trips and information I find online. Most of my maps are incomplete as they change each time I visit.
However on my most recent trip to Disney just a few weeks ago I found that some of the machines had a plaque on them with the following website http://www.ctmgroupinc.com/disney. This is actually managed by the company that maintains all the machines on property and keeps their maps up to date. The maps don’t have dates on them but I reviewed them before responding and all the machine locations on their site match my records from my visit. The other nice thing about these maps is that in additional to showing the exact location if you click on the location tag it will show a picture of the designs available for each machine. This way if your daughter is only collecting a certain type of design (i.e. Princesses, Frozen, Mickey, etc) this will show you exactly what machines to visit.
I think these will work great for you. Let me know what you think. I’m most likely going to use this website myself moving forward on all future trips and it really is a great resource. Also feel free to check out my personal webpage http://www.davidscointravels.com. I just use this mainly to catalogue my collection but I keep the machine location as up to date as I can whenever I’m notified of changes. Good luck on finding the machines and I hope you enjoy your trip!
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Nice blog, we were members of TEC with my daughter, but she wasn’t interested enough. Maybe I’ll try again, hopefully this time it will stick.
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That’s fantastic. I’ve been a member for quite a few years and have really enjoyed it. The newsletter articles are always interesting and getting free pressed coins is always a nice perk.
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Yes, I have to say it is one of the nicer clubs. Unfortunately I started hoarding memberships at some point, so I cut back to the ones I actually participated in.
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I’ve fallen prey to that as well. All those memberships add up and it’s hard to make time for all of them.
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Hi David, I wrote to you about email notifications yesterday. Can you please contact me privately?
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What a cool story, and a fun adventure for you. I also like to collect those coins, but I don’t really know what all I have. I just think they are kind of fun 😊 And I like to travel (and I love Disney!)
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Hi Lisa. They are a fun and pretty inexpensive souvenir from most travel locations. Of course, the Disney ones are my favorite as well. I do like from time to time to go through my collection and see all the places we have been and my kids really enjoy hunting for the machines now which makes it just that much more fun as a family activity. Thanks for reaching out and good luck with your collection!
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