Earlier in the summer when I attended the Summer FUN Coin Show in Orlando I had received a pamphlet advertising another coin show later in the year. That was the inaugural Great American Coin & Collectible Show in Tampa Florida at the Tampa Convention Center hosted by Coin World Magazine. I’m always on the look out for new events and ways to try and find elongated coins for my collection and figured I would make the trip to Tampa so I could check it out.

I decided to visit during the week hoping to avoid some of the larger crowds that would most likely happen over the weekend. The only draw back was that there was an admission cost to enter during the week. There was also a parking fee for the nearby garage so that was also something to know before you go.

I’ve never been inside the Tampa Convention Center before and it was very nice. I’m use to the larger sprawling campus of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando but everything was laid out nicely and was well organized. I had no issues figuring our where I needed to go. There was an online preregistration that I took advantage of for a bit of a discount, plus it helped expedite getting checked-in and my credentials once I arrived. With my lanyard around my neck I headed into the bourse floor.

I mentioned that this was the inaugural GACC show and it was advertised as having over 700 vendors. It was in a large area with plenty going on. I’m not sure if I think this was actually 700 vendors but I’ll take their word for it.

The vendors had everything you could imagine available for sale, and many of them were also looking to buy if you had anything available they were interested in. Some vendors had a wild selection of all different items, while many more preferred to just have a more limited niche set of items. I chatted with quite a few vendors trying to see if anyone had any elongated coins for sale but didn’t have much luck.

I made some new friends at the Lincoln Cents and Canadian Coins table shown above. They had a large selection of U.S. Cents (pennies). Quite a few large bags of pennies, as well as individual coins all available for sale. No elongated coins here, but they were wonderful to chat with and I hope they had a successful show. I look forward to seeing them again at future shows.

As I continued to wonder around the show floor and did at one point come across a table with a few elongated coins available. One was the above slabbed 1902 Pan-American Expo Elongated coin.

They also had a few others available that inquired about. It’s not that I wasn’t interested in them, but their prices just seemed higher than I thought the coins were worth. I did try to talk them down a bit but wasn’t able to get to a price I was comfortable paying. So I just had to leave them behind.

As much as this was probably more considered a coin show, it did adveterise that there would be other collectibles available. However I didn’t see too much of that around.

I did run into a few booths with some Pokemon cards, and even a couple small piles of comic books but that was about it.

Another section of coin shows I’ve always enjoyed are the education exhibits. At the Orlando show there is a separate designated area for all those exhibits to be displayed, but at the GACC show they seemed to just be displayed at the vendor or club tables. So they were a little harder to find. As always the exhibitors did a wonderful job and I know from first hand it takes a lot of work. One that I really enjoyed was about Disney Dollars and had some very early bills I’d never seen in person before.

Now I knew that our friends at TECNews wouldn’t be attending this show so I wasn’t expecting to find any free elongated coins. However at one point during my visit as I walked through the club tables I saw some familiar faces John and Nancy Wilson at the ANA table, and sure enough they had an elongated coin they were giving out and even offered a second elongated coin for being a TEC Member.

The coins were not themed for this GACC show but that’s okay I still was happy to have them for my collection. The elongated penny was honoring Kenneth Bressett at the 2024 World’s Fair of Money, and the second coin was an elongated nickel celebrating the ANA’s 126th year anniversary and was also from the World’s Fair of Money show.

Other than these two elongated coins from the ANA table I wasn’t able to acquire any other coins during this visit. That’s okay and just something that happens from time to time. When we have a very specific niche like elongated coins unfortunately not many of the more traditional collectors carry them. A few that I spoke to mentioned they had some back at their shops and gave me contact information to reach out. I’m just hoping maybe by asking over and over again, in the future they may be more apt to bring some of them along and we can take a look at that them.

The GACC did announce future dates for their next couple shows. April 2025 will be held in Fort Lauderdale Florida, and then September 2025 in Chicago Illinois. I’m note sure if I’ll make that trip to Fort Lauderdale next year, but you never know. If they do have another event closer to the Orlando area I definitely think I’d check it out again. These shows are always a lot of fun, filled with wonderful people all enjoying the hobby in many different ways. Keep on Collecting!

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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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We are back with another State Park visit and this time we headed up to Apopka Florida about 40 minutes north of Walt Disney World to the Wekiwa Springs State Park

As with all the Florida State Parks there is a minimal entrance fee per car load but is well worth the cost with the nature trails, springs for swimming, picnic areas and so much more available to all who visit.

On this visit however my family opted to expire the nature trails. Which may have been a mistake with the hot summer temperatures and incredible Florida humidity, but we were determinate to still enjoy our walk among through the swamp.

The lakes and waterways you encounter on the pathways are gorgeous and you will find launches for approved watercraft if you are looking for that type of activity.

The Wekiwa Springs is available for those looking to enjoy a nice way to cool off in the heat. My family has yet to try out one of the springs, and I’m sure we will sometime in the future. For now since we are still fairly new Floridians, it’s taking a little time to get use to the wildlife before we take that plunge into a natural body of water.

After our fantastic stroll through the park we came across this fun little Nature Center located in-between the Springs and the main parking area. It’s not very big, but does have some fun little exhibits on display and plenty of information about the wildlife and plantlike you can find within the park.

Plus if you head towards the back of this little covered pavilion you will find a pressed penny machine.

While I always am happy to find a new pressed penny machine, these style machines are always lower on my preferred list just due to them not always pressing very well. Many times the coins are rolled short, and a portion of the design is missing. Plus lining up the design on the gear with the arrow always seems clumsy and not always accurate. That could be why the coins rolls short and I wish they would come up with a better method.

The penny designs available at this location however I can happily report pressed pretty well for the most part. The Raccoon design rolled a bit short, while the others were about as perfect as we could ask for with this type of machine. Each design includes the State Park name which I love, and the animal images are fairly generic. I’m sure these are creatures you “could” meet within the park, on our visit however we didn’t see any of them. Mostly just some frogs, and plenty of birds up in the trees.

I really have enjoyed visiting the different Florida State Parks and it certainly helps drawn me in that most of them offer a set of pressed pennies. We still have a few others to visit, and plenty of new pennies to press.

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After a fairly quick (for Disney) update the Country Bears Musical Jamboree opened on July 17th at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

It features the fan favorite bears (a couple with new names) performing classic Disney songs in their style of country music featuring genres of bluegrass, country-pop and more. The show is inspired by the variety shows performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Tennessee.

I am a pretty big Disney fan and love most of the classic attractions at the parks. We would visit this attraction every so often but it wasn’t something we had to do every time. Honestly if they tore it out and put something else in here I probably would not have been too heart broken. But after seeing the new updated show I really did enjoy it and am happy they decided to go in this direction.

The new songs are catchy and I found myself still singing some of them after I had long left the theater. Disney even released the official music on Youtube and I’m actually playing it in the background while I write this post. Their version of Try everything from Zootopia, and A Whole New World from Aladdin are my two favorites.

Before you head into the show and are waiting inside the lobby absorbing some sweet air conditioning, make sure you check out the new updated pressed penny machine. It’s located just inside the main doors as you enter the building. The cabinet is unchanged from it’s former version, just the coin designs have been updated. I also love the bear claw scratches found all over the floor. Nice touch Disney!

This new 8-design penny set includes some familiar faces but their names have been updated. I think this is a fun new set and I was happy to see this released shortly after the new show premiered.

If you are visiting the Magic Kingdom be sure to take a little break and check out the new Country Bear Musical Jamboree. It’s nice to see a classic opening day attraction get a little love and TLC. Keep on Pressing!

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Seaworld Orlando has done it again with another new coaster. They have definitely seemed to change their focus into these new attractions, as they slowly phase out some of their more problematic animal exhibits.

This time we head back into the Antarctica section of the park. There used to be a ride in this area themed around penguins where you got into a circular donut looking vehicle and slide around the floor following a lost penguin. That has all been removed for this new coaster.

I visited during the opening week of this new ride and the lines were not too bad. Guests are always anxious for new things to do and I actually thought the lines would be worse. The wait times were posted consistently throughout the day at around 45-60 minutes.

When you load onto the coaster it begin like a classic dark ride. It glides across the track at a slow pace through a few initial rooms to get the story started. Then as the outside daylight gets closer the first launch takes place and you are shot out of the building like a regular coaster. There are no inversions on this attraction, but there are some steep banks and plenty of twists and turns making it a fun experience. Family coaster seems a bit deceptive as I think it makes many feel like younger children could ride, but depending on your children that may be something you need to rethink. If you would like to see a video of the full attraction check out the very bottom of this post or click here for our Youtube video about the ride.

Once you exit off the coaster you get to walk through the old Penguin exhibit that is still there. Then you walk through a passage way exiting into the gift shop known as Glacial Supply.

As you would expect there is plenty of penguin themed merchandise inside and honestly most of it was pretty generic items that I’ve seen in many of the other stores inside the park. There was a small section of Penguin Trek themed items right at the front of the store.

That is where I found the latest Minted Collectible Coin featuring Penguin Trek. This is similar to the other coins we have reviewed in previous posts for Ice Breaker and Pipeline coasters. The coin is displayed inside of a clear acrylic case. The photo of the coaster and logo are a nice feature along with the colored coin showing the same image.

The reverse side of the coin has the Penguin Trek logo along with “Opened 2024” that I really like, as well as all the details on the coaster. This includes the company that made it, total length, height, speed, and other stats.

I don’t know what it is about these coins but I’ve really grown to like them and have actually been looking forward to this one. Whenever I hear about a new SeaWorld attraction I start wondering if they will release another new coin. The only issue is that the price is wild at $34.99. I was able to get a passholder discount which helped a bit but that’s still a high price for this item. I’ve never seen anyone else buy one and don’t see many listed on eBay so I’m not sure how many of these they actually sell and worry that if they aren’t very popular they may eventually stop offering them. I would prefer they just drop the price which I think would help them sell more. For now there are no new attractions scheduled to open at SeaWorld so it may be some time before we see any of these Limited Edition Minted Coins. Keep on Collecting!

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I’ve been lucky enough to travel and see quite a bit of the United States and Canada, but there are still plenty of places I would love to visit. Hawaii is probably the top of that list. My wife and I have been talking about maybe doing a future anniversary trip to the islands but for now it’s just a, hope to one day, type of trip. Hopefully if that trip ever does happen, I would like to either stay at the Disney Aulani Resort or at least just stop by and check it out (not sure of the rules for non-guests). Even if I’m all the way out in the Pacific Ocean I still need a Disney fix. Plus I was just informed that the resort has just released a new collectible medallion machine.

During some of my fantasy trip planning, you know where you go through booking a completely insane trip with all the trimmings but don’t actually book it. It’s fun to see all the different options available and things to do at the resort. The pictures I’m sure do not do this place justice, but even still it looks amazing in those pictures.

Now about those medallions I mentioned earlier. Since I have not been to Aulani I don’t really know the layout very well. The information I’ve received is that the Machine is somewhere on the main level of the resort in or near an activity center. If anyone has more specific details please let me know so I can update the info here.

The above photo of the machine was shared in a Facebook group and shows a bit of the cabinet and marquee sign. The cabinet design has an interesting look to it.

The machine does offer four different designs and each comes with the same design on the reverse side which is of the Aulani arch logo.

There is a sign displayed near the machine trying to give clearer instructions on how the machine works and the different payment methods. I do find in my travels that some collectors try swiping their credit card for just one coin and walk off. Not realizing they have been forced to pay full price for the full set and almost leave without the other three coins they paid for. I think this will help, as long as guests are actually reading it.

The designs available on this set of medallions include 2024 Year of the Dragon, Chip & Dale Surfing, Mickey & Pluto on the beach, and 2024 Stitch.

Above is a closer look at the design on the back side of each medallions. This is a great feature helping to distinguish where these coins came from.

I do like the dated coins as this would mean that we may see new designs each year. The only drawback if their location. Obviously not a place that most of us are able to visit often so that leaves either trying to find a set on eBay or connect with a Hawaiian personal shopper. The cost for the set is $20 for all four, or $6 each which is standard for many of the machines here in Florida at the theme parks. That doesn’t include any additional shopper fees and postage so it could end up being quite the investment if you really want these for your collection. Aloha!

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Yes we are back with another Florida State Park visit, but this one I promise is different. Well by different I mean we don’t explore a nature trail, or swim in a Springs. Instead we do get out on the water for a tour, however before I explain that further lets get inside the park.

After paying for the water tour we head beyond the ticket booth area into the park. It has some really nice paved walkways, and the foliage was fairly well maintained in this front area. There was also a long building with multiple store fronts for plenty of shopping options while you visit.

Ok now let’s talk about this water tour. We were not getting into any canoes or pontoon boats, instead this was a Glass Bottom Boat tour. My family had never done something like this before and weren’t exactly sure what to expect.

Above is a photo of the fleet of boats. The tours start about every 20 minutes and the boats can accommodate about 25 people at a time.

Here’s how it works, the glass bottom is a strip down the middle of the boat, and all the guests sit on benches that are along both sides and the rear. The front is where your Captain sits, and also has a microphone to ensure all their information and expertise can be heard during your trip.

Once we launched and headed for deeper water this glass bottom boat was amazing. My kids were just fascinated with it and couldn’t take their eyes off aways from it.

The Captains all have a set route they take you on, but with their own expertise can adjust the locations to help ensure you see plenty of aquatic creatures. During our trip we saw tons of fish, turtles, and about a half dozen manatees.

After our 30 minute tour, the boat was docked and we all unloaded into that shopping area I mentioned earlier. On the day we visited quite a few of the shops were not open. Thankfully for me the penny machine was located outside so I was still able to use it.

Notice the wheels on the bottom of this cabinet. Obviously this is for easier placement of the machine, and from what I’ve seen online it does move around quite often. However it’s always under this covered little shopping area with only a few store front so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.

The pennies pressed really nicely at this machine. It really seems to have been given quite a bit of attention to keep it working properly. I’ve had some not great experiences in the past with these penny pincher style machines. I loved that one of the designs is of the Glass Bottom Boat, then we have some more generic “Florida” themed designs of a couple Manatees, a Gator and a Turtle. All of the designs do also say Silver Springs State Park, Ocala Florida on them which is such a nice feature.

My Florida State Park collection of pressed pennies has really been growing and it seems like we do have a few more to visit in the future. This tour was amazing and I can’t wait to come back and experience it again. Thanks for visiting, and as always Keep on Pressing!

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