We have received lots of questions about recommendations for how to store and display the souvenir / collectible medallions we have all been furiously hunting for at Disney and other tourist locations. Below I have outlined some suggestions I received from readers and included links to where you can buy them. Please Note: Below includes Amazon affiliate links which if used will help support this blog.

First at these 41mm plastic coin capsules that include foam gaskets to surround the coin and ensure they fit snuggly in the enclosure. This also includes the plastic storage box which holds 60 coins. Here is the link if you would like to get more details or order them.

Next is this nice looking Coin Collection Book that has 60 pockets inside perfect for this entire set plus a few extra if needed. This book will hold 2 inch x 2 inch cardboard flips that will protect each coin then you jus slide them into each page. The nice thing about the cardboard flips if they can be written on to include information on the design, collected date, location or whatever you want to include. Here is the link for the Coin Collection Book if you are interested in this option.

As mentioned above if you wanted to use that coin book you would also need to get some of the 2×2 cardboard flips. These are available at pretty much every coin collecting shop or online retailer. These do come in a large variety of window sizes, so be sure and select the 40mm version as that will allow for the entire medallions to be visible. Here is the link for a version on Amazon but come in quantities of 50. Just be aware you may need to get a second order if you have the entire set of medallions.

If you are interested in the 2×2 cardboard flip option, but don’t want the smaller Coin Booklet you can use the above pictured plastic pocket sheets that fit into any standard three-ring binder. This is a common option for many coin collectors so you may already have some of these in your home. Here is the link for these sheets which usually come in packs of 20. Just be sure to get the 2inch by 2inch version which should give 20 pockets per page. I didn’t see where you could buy the pages individually so you may end up having plenty left over for your collection to expand.

Our friend Donna mentioned the above beautiful display as another option for the 50th Medallions. This is labeled as being for Military Challenge Coin’s, but looks like it would also be a great option for our new Disney coins as well. Here is the link so you can check it out.

Our Friend’s Collection Display Ideas

Above is a beautiful display from fellow collector Michelle D. with some of her special 50th Medallions and Pressed Pennines. What a great idea, thank you for sharing!

Another amazing display from collector Annie M. with all her medallions and I love that 50th Mickey silhouette design. Thank you for sharing!

We are seeing so many fanatic display ideas for our Medallion collections. Above is from collector Krystal H. with all her coins stored safely in the plastic capsules and nice arranged on a each display. Wonderful idea thank you everyone for sharing your displays.

Here is another beautiful display with all 53 collectible medallions, the special 50th anniversary park maps all inside a wonderful frame. This is so creative and another amazing idea from fellow collector Angie W.

So many fantastic display ideas from more of our friends. Above is a beautiful wall shelf shaped like Mickey showing off all of the coins. Great idea from collector Laura O.

This frame and matte idea is a great way to show off those wonderful medallions. Thank you to collector Robert R for his display.

Above we have another really nice wall display from collector Angela G. with a beautiful background of the castle, and fireworks. Also looks like the medallions are extra protected inside some coin capsules.

Wow I was blown away when I saw the above display of 50th Medallions from collector Dawn H. This is really fantastic and I can only imaging the work it took to get it put together. Amazing job!

The challenge coin wall mount displays seem to be a popular option for our collectible medallions. Above is a photo from collector Ashley A. showing off her entire collection. This looks fantastic!

Wow we have so many talented friends in our community. Above is another display from collector Renee L.

Due to the recent severe heat warnings we have been having in Florida the last few weeks my family has been avoiding the theme parks for other options. Primarily focusing on things we can do where we are surrounded by sweet refreshing air conditioning.

Just this past weekend we headed down to Kenansville Florida about an hour south of Walt Disney World property to experience the Wild Florida drive-thru safari.

We bought our tickets ahead of time online to help expedite our entrance to the safari. You drive along a gravel path with the entire park covered approximately 170 acres.

The animals are free roaming and will give you an up close and personal experience with them. You do need to drive very slowly and cautiously as they will just randomly walk across the pathways. We were given a guide when we first entered with a kind of scavenger hunt to be on the look out for just a few of the over 150 animals that roam the safari.

Once we finished driving through the safari we parked and were able to go and visit the giraffe platform. For a small $5 fee per person we then were able to hand feed a giraffe some crispy romaine lettuce leaves.

Also up on this raised platform is where the first pressed penny machine was located. It was a four design manual crank machine and probably most surprising is that it was still only $0.50 to press your own preferred penny. The set includes designs of the Wild Florida logo, a giraffe, a gator and a sloth.

Amazingly that was only the first half of our day. Our safari ticket also gave us access to their Wildlife & Nature Park. The downfall was that it was extremely hot out so we didn’t spend as much time in this area as we would have liked.

As with any good Florida nature park there were plenty of gators floating around. The larger ones are always out in the main larger bodies of water.

The smaller ones are kept in separate areas until they are large enough to join to the others.

The rest of the park had plenty of habitats with other wildlife like raccoons, capybaras, lemurs, and plenty of lizards and snakes.

Wild Florida also offers Air Boat rides which we didn’t during this visit. Where you would check-in for those boat rides was also a gift shop.

If you walk straight through the gift shop, out the back doors and onto the dock that leads towards the air boats is where the second pressed penny machine was found. The designs at this machine had some really nice details to them with images of a Rhino, Gator, Lemur and one of their air boats.

By this time we were definitely melting and anxious to get back into our car to cool down. This was a lot of fun and we will definitely be back again sometime. A very special thank you to our friend and fellow collector Joe Watts who helped give details on these machine locations. Without his help I probably wouldn’t have been able to find these machines.

Keep on Pressing!

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Well I don’t know about you but a few years ago when we were all on lock down, and couldn’t go out side to press any pennies I was on the look out for some new activities to take up my time. First was Lego which I always enjoy but holy cow some of those sets get pretty expensive. The second was of all things Japanese Manga which looking back on it now probably wasn’t much cheaper than those lego sets with all the volumes I’ve acquired.

What is Manga? Basically they are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Manga stories are typically printed in black and white, and for us in North America may have a bit of a learning curve when it comes to reading these in reverse from right to left.

Now you may say, why not just read Marvel or DC comics? In the past I have, but I just find that recently with all the Marvel movies, and TV shows I’m kind of worn out on those characters and stories. Manga offered a whole new cast of characters, and gorgeous artwork that I was completely unfamiliar with.

So what does this have to do with pressed pennies, well I found out that there are some elongated coin designs featuring many of the popular Manga and Anime characters available throughout Japan. Thankfully I was able to get in contact with a very sweet collecting friend name Betty who lives in Japan and was more than happy to help pick up some of these coins for my collection. Let’s take a look at some of my favorite Manga series and the elongated coins.

Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen is written and illustrated by Gege Akutami. The story follows high school student Yuji Itadori as he joins a secret organization of Jujutsu Sorcerers to eliminate a powerful curse name Ryomen Sukuna of whom Yuji becomes the host.

Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan is a hugely popular series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It’s set in a world where humanity is forced to live in cities surrounded by three enormous walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to as Titans. The story follows Eren Yeager who vows to exterminate the Titans after they bring about the destruction of his hometown and the death of his mother.

Spy Family

Spy Family is written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo and follows the life of Spy Lord Forger, who has to build a family for one of his missions. He adoptions a young orphan girl named Anya, and marries a woman named Yor Briar. However, unbeknownst to him Anya can read minds and Yor is a professional assassin. Neither Load nor You are aware of each other’s true identities, or that young Anya knows their true professions.

Demon Slayer

Demon Slayer is a manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge. Tanjiro and his fmaily live in the mountains of Japan. He travels to a nearby village to sell charcoal but upon his return discovers his family was attacked and slaughtered by a demon. Tanjiro and his sister Nezuko were the sole survivors of the incident, with Nezuko being transformed into a demon, but still showing signs of human emotion. Tanjiro is recruited to start training to become a demon slayer, beginning his quest to help his sister turn into a human again, and avenge the death of his family.

One Piece

One Piece is written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It was originally published back in 1997 and continues the story to this day. It currently has over 1000 chapters of manage and anime episodes available. The story follows the adventures of Monkey D Luffy and his crew the Straw Hat Pirates who are in search of the mythical treasure known as the “One Piece” in order to become the next King of the Pirates.

It’s always fun when two of your hobbies can cross over into each other. I’m still exploring new Manga series and will be on the look out for more elongated coins from Japan as I think they are just really well designed. Do you have any favorite Manga or Anime series that you think I might enjoy? Be sure to let me know down in the comments below.

Keep exploring new hobbies, and as always Keep on Pressing!

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We have received confirmation that there are NEW Souvenir Medallions for Disney’s 100th Anniversary just released at Disneyland in California. This is just a separate post just to document these changes, but I will also update the Complete Guide post with all of the medallions listed here.

Here is a quick review of what has happened. Currently there are changes to five of the medallion machines. These are NOT new machines, instead the machines are still in their same locations but have been loaded with brand new designs. We are assuming at this time those original medallion designs will no longer be available and are considered retired. Below is the information I have so far on these new designs and will also confirm their locations. There are rumors that this may happen to some other machines in the near future and I’ll keep this post as up to date as possible to help with all your collections. Good Luck and Happy Collecting!

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Do you need Storage or Display ideas for your Medallion collection? Click Here to check out our separate post with information on many different options and photos of our friends amazing collections for some inspiration.

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Disneyland Park

Pieces of Eight Gift Shop

Inside the Pieces of Eight Gift Shop the medallion machine has received some new Medallion designs featuring Jack Skellington & Sally, Oogie Boogie, Captain Hook, and the Pirates of the Caribbean Skull Logo. That Pirates logo coin looks very similar to the one that was here before, so we will need to investigate that further once I see the coin in person.

California Adventure Park

Bing Bong’s Sweet Shop

The machine over at Bing Bong’s Sweet Shop inside the California Adventure park has new coin designs of Mike Wazowski, Sully & Boo, Flip & Heimlich, Lightning McQueen, and Ember & Wade from the new Elemental animated movie.

Downtown Disney

World of Disney

While visiting the Downtown Disney shopping district be sure to head inside the gigantic World of Disney store. Here there are two machines, first has new designs featuring Moana & Pua, Sleeping Beauty & Owl, Ariel, and Rapunzel with Pascal.

Without having to move very far you will find the second medallion machine in this store that has had it’s medallions replaced with new versions of your favorite villains including Ursula & Floatsam Jetsam, Maleficent, Hades, and Jafar with Iago.

Resorts

Grand Californian Resort & Spa

Inside the beautiful Grand Californian Resort is where our final machine for now is located. The new designs in this machine include Pocahontas & Meeko, Belle & Chip, Cinderella & Jaq Gus Gus, and Tiana with my favorite firefly Ray.

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The Jungle Cruise is a classic Disney attraction. Opening in Disneyland back in 1955, and here in Walt Disney World in 1971.

On board guests are taken on a riverboat cruise inspired by a few films including the 1951 adventure The African Queen.

Your tour is led by well-meaning skippers with plenty of tall tails and jungle themed puns to make the journey seem like it goes by in about 8 minutes depending on traffic.

During the cruise guests will encounter large snakes, hungry lions, and many other jungle adventures. Not to mention a special trip to witness the 8th Wonder of the World the backside of water!!!! Also known as Schweitzer Falls.

Along your journey you can try to spot the ever elusive and well known “head” salesman of the jungle with some very special items for purchase known as Trader Sam.

Elongated coin designer and fellow collector Don Cade has one again created a very special coin design featuring Trader Sam. I was able to get this design pressed on both a US Center and US Quarter. It is a vertical designed coin, with a classic dotted border. Trader Sam is featured front and center stating “Today’s Special 2 for 1” as famous line from the attraction.

The Jungle Cruise and Sam himself have gone through some changes throughout the years, but this still remains one of my favorite attractions at the park. Thank you to Don for creating this fantastic elongated coin design. If you are interested in this or any of Don’s other designs you can contact him through a few different elongated coin facebook groups that I have linked here.

Keep on Pressing and I’ll see you next time. Kungaloosh!

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Just a couple weeks ago I was able to attend the Summer edition of the Florida United Numismatists (FUN) Coin Show. It was held in Orlando Florida at the Orange County Convention Center.

The Summer coin show is much smaller than the Winter edition held in January and you can read about my trip to that show here. But this is far from a small coin convention as there are still a lot of vendors, clubs and events going on to keep you busy.

The FUN show is completely free to guests, the only requirement is to visit one of the welcome booths to get a name tag and a free gift if you this is your first time visiting. Then head on inside the show floor.

It’s hard to believe that this is a smaller coin show but trust me it is. There are large signs hanging from the ceiling to help you navigate the different areas. Unless you are like me and just go up and down every aisle.

No matter what your numismatic specialty is there will be someone there with the same interest, and probably some items you need for your ongoing collection. Or maybe you’ll come across something new to start collecting. It’s amazing what you will find here. Some of the tables even had non-numismatic items like jewelry, comics books and even some collectible cards like Pokemon and sports cards.

Our friends at The Elongated Collectors (TEC) club usually have a table at the Winter FUN show, but this Summer show is close to the larger ANA World’s Fair of Money show. At that show they host their annual membership meeting, auctions and other fun events. This year it’s being held in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. I’m not able to attend that show this year, and I did miss catching up with our friends at this show. To try and make up for that I wanted to try and find some elongated coins for buy and add to my collection. Spoiler alert, that would be easier said that done at this show.

There were a few tables selling rolls of copper pennies, and even individual pennies with all different minted dates.

I did find some elongated coins about halfway through the show but they were at the Kids & Coins table for younger collectors taking part in the scavenger hunt. My curiosity got the best of me and I took a closer look at the coins available to them, and they appeared to be designs from previous FUN shows so we weren’t missing out on those.

One of my favorite sections of the coin show is the Educational Exhibits, and there were some great ones.

However even the exhibits were limits to only one that I found to contain elongated coins.

There were a few vendors I came across that were selling some Disney Dollars. These were a form of corporate scripts basically a substitute for legal tender. They were first used in Disneyland in 1987. You could change out actual US currency for these colorful Disney themed bills and use them for goods and services within the parks. Over the years they added different denominations and characters to each bill. Then Disney stopped distributing and printing the currency in 2016 but as with anything Disney these bills quickly became a popular collectible. I couldn’t resist any longer and thought this one that included a nice thick acrylic display would be a nice addition to my office and was able to pick it up for a reasonable price.

The aisles of the coin show were quickly coming to an end and I hadn’t see any elongated coins for sale. Then just when I thought we were out of luck I came across the Eagle’s Rare Coins of Southwest Florida table. There on one of the cases I saw a few elongated coins laid out on top. I asked if I could see them and was given a box with the coins organized inside. There were quite a few coins available however they were all from one specific event the 1901 Pan-American Expo.

Many collectors are familiar with the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago that is generally accepted as the location of the first souvenir elongated coin. In 1901 there was a similar World’s Fair held in Buffalo New York know as the Pan-American Expo. It covered 350 acres and featured some iconic buildings and exhibits. To celebrate these beautiful new structures, commemorative elongated coin designs were created for each of the buildings. This vendor had many of the designs available for sale, and since I didn’t have any of these in my collection I wanted to pick out a good one to start off with. My choice was the coin featuring the US Government Building.

I finished my visit to the Summer FUN show happy to have acquired a couple new items for my collection, but will be anxiously awaiting the Winter show next year so we can try again with tracking now some special elongated coins.

Have you visited a local coin show lately, and did you find any elongated coins for your collection? Be sure to let me know down in the comments below, I’d love to hear all about it. Enjoy the rest of your week and as always Keep on Pressing!

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Back in 2021 I had taken a trip over to Daytona Beach in Florida to check out the Daytona International Speedway and you can read all about that more detailed review here. I mentioned in that post that I’m not really a big Motorsport fan, and figured I probably wouldn’t visit this location again for awhile. However that just recently changed when I received a tip from a fellow collector that one of the penny designs was updated for 2023.

So I took this as an opportunity to visit the nearby Daytona Buc-ee’s that I have quickly become obsessed with, and then just a short drive away I visited the Speedway to check on this new penny design. I remembered the machine was located near the restrooms and small snack area just outside the gift shop. At a quick glance the machine looked identical.

Even thought I was told only one design had changed, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to press a full set just in case the others had been altered as well. Upon further inspection once I got back home I can confirm only one of the designs was updated. Can you spot which one?

I won’t keep you waiting, it’s the Daytona 500 designs. Now I will admit this slight difference took me a little while to see, my eyes aren’t what they used to be. The big difference is that the year 2023 was added as seen in the above Left close-up. The photo on the Right is of the previous version where no specific date was listed. There are some other changes like the dotted border appears different, and The Great American Race tag line is slightly lower.

This does seem like a bit of a strange change to make. I appreciate that this kind of forces the vendor to update this design each year however if that is the only main change I don’t know if I would drive all the way out there to get a new one year after year. Hopefully if this is the case we can cross our fingers that the design and not just the date will be changed. Enjoy and as always Keep on Pressing!

If you’ve been following my travels you know that I love a good zoo, and have visited a lot. Honestly I try to visit any zoo that I come across during my trips no matter how big or small. I’ve seen some really amazing ones and others definitely needed a bit of TLC.

On a recently trip to Jacksonville Florida I had a bit of free time before my appointment and figured why not check out the zoo, and am I ever happy I did.

The layout of the zoo was nice. One of my biggest pet peeves is when you find dead ends and have to turn around and retrace your steps. This was a nice flow to it, and I felt that it was very easy to experience all their exhibits easily.

Even the pathways throughout the zoo were nice, clean and well manicured. I always like these raised wooden walkways, I think it may be because they remind me of the famous Jersey Shore Boardwalks.

One of the exhibits I came across that kind of surprised me was their Stingray Lagoon. I think these are great little attractions, and of course a guest and kid favorite. It just seems that these are more common at aquariums than a zoo, but I’m not complaining.

Of course the zoo had to have the obligatory Florida section showcasing many different types of local animals, reptiles, snakes and more. I couldn’t resist visiting with this pretty big gator.

I eventually came a cross a beautiful raised covered platform that offered a nice close up view of the giraffes. During specific times of day they offer guests the option to feed them. This was definitely once of the nicest giraffe experiences I’ve even come across at a zoo.

By this time we had visited most of the zoo, and I came across this Jaguar area that did have some big cat habitats, but also some dining locations and plenty of outdoor seating.

On the day I visited most of these eateries were closed, but I did find tucked away near the door to one of the restaurants was a pressed penny machine.

This was a nice looking pennycollector style machine and it was only $0.50 to press plus I was able to use my own pennies. It’s crazy to think these are still available since we are so used to seeing the newer preloaded machines. The designs were of various animals from the park, and I always like that the name of the zoo is included.

It was getting a little late in the day and I was going to have to leave soon. There was still one last penny machine I was looking for and was informed it was back up near the entrance to the zoo.

Sure enough near the entrance / exit there is a nice gift shop called Mombasa Import / Export shop. To the right side of this shop was a counter where you could purchase photos from your visit to the zoo.

When I inquired about the machine with the staff near the photo counter they pointed to this sad looking machine behind them. It had been flipped around because they said too many people had continued to try and use it even thought it was broken. They told me the vendor was scheduled to come out and fix it but they didn’t know when that would be. It’s always a bit disappointing when this happens but it’s part of the hobby and we just have to roll with it. I ended my visit to the zoo but our story doesn’t there.

I waited a few weeks before reaching out to the zoo with an envelope containing a letter, and enough coins to press a set. In my note I tried to explain as best I could which machine and designs I was interested in, and included a self-addressed stamped envelope for them to return the coins. It did take almost a month and I had pretty much given up on them when all of a sudden my envelop had returned and was filled with the pennies I had missed. The staff member was even nice enough to include a photo of the machine back in operation so I could share it with everyone.

This zoo really blew me away, it was gorgeous, clean and the staff was unbelievably helpful not just during my visit but also afterwards with getting the missing pennies. I can’t wait to go back for another some time in the future, and maybe we will even find some new pennies at that time. Keep on Pressing!

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I know we have already made numerous posts about the Disney 100th Anniversary and all the special elongated coins that have been released, but I finally got my hands on one other set. This time it’s from another international park Hong Kong Disneyland.

Thankfully I was able to get in touch with a very helpful collector named Alex L that was able to visit the park and help acquired these coins.

Unlike Disneyland and Walt Disney World here in the United States with their large number of available designs. Hong Kong Disneyland only has two 100th Anniversary designs available, thankfully however they are both in the same machine.

The first elongated along has a large 100 in the middle with both Mickey and Minnie Mouse popping their heads through the zeroes. Hong Kong Disneyland is printed along the bottom and the entire design is surrounded by a nice fireworks design.

The second coin has a similar design to the first this time with Chip and Dale on the left and right sides of the large 100 in the center of the coin.

It sounds like these will be the only 100th Anniversary designs released at the Hong Kong parks and they do seem to swap out their designs fairly quickly. I’m not sure how much longer these will be available so if you are able to get your hands on them I would recommend doing so in the very near future.

Keep on Pressing!