The 2024 Summer Olympics will be commencing soon. Starting July 26th in the City of Lights Paris France.
To celebrate collector and elongated coin designer Alex Mruk has created a special series of ten elongated coins depicting different Olympic sports.
During his research Alex found that the 1924 Olympics were also held in Paris, and he loved the art used for some post cards done by artist E. Blanche from those games 100 years ago. From those small pieces of art, Alex took inspiration to make a set of elongated coins.
All of the designs are pressed on French 10 centime coins which are the approximate size and color of a U.S. cent. Due to the use of real French coins, only a very limited number of these sets were made.
No matter which country you are cheering for in this years Olympics, it’s always just an incredible time to come together and watch some amazing athletes do what they have been training to do for almost their entire lives. Go for the gold, and Keep on Pressing!
** There is an update as of August 19th, 2024 to the 8-Design Pressed penny machine. It was originally located near the Restrooms, but has been moved to inside the Tiana’s Bayou General Store. This is the little shop you walk through as you exit the attraction. The reason for the movie is due to a new 4-design penny machine being released. I’ve included information at the bottom of this post just so all the new Tiana coins are listed in one post, but will also create a separate post that can be found here.
On June 28th, 2024 the fan favorite attraction known as Splash Mountain had reopened with a fresh coat of paint, new characters and new theme. Now known as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
The ride has remained mostly unchanged. It’s still a log flume style water ride with a 50 foot drop towards the end of the attraction. However the characters and story have been converted. The story picks up after the adventures in animated movie The Princess and the Frog.
Tiana as taken over a farm and co-op to grow and supply her restaurant with the required product. This is all part of her ever growing Tiana’s Food company. Then you follow her on a log ride through the Bayou just in time to join her for a Mardi Gras celebration.
The main queue for the ride has seen a lot of changes. Not just the layout, but also due to the story which begins in the queue as you walk through part of Tiana’s garden, into the main office, and even past a kitchen. Eagled eyed guests may even spot a copy of Daddy’s Gumbo recipe displayed proudly on the wall.
Once you load into the familiar but slightly updated ride vehicles you are taken on a wild and wet adventure. The updated animatronics are really well done including a few different Tiana’s located throughout the ride.
Even Mama Odie makes a few appearances including the above once with a mouth watering pile of beignets nearby.
Louis the lovable gator also appears in a few different scenes, and even plays his much loved trumpet in the final Mardi Gras scene. Speaking of that final scene it’s incredible, with fantastic music, and a huge collection of characters all enjoying the party.
After getting off the ride you will eventually come to the Photo Viewing area with a bunch of monitors on the wall where you can see your on-ride photo. Tucked away in the corner is the Medallion machine.
The machine cabinet is plain wood with a stain job that appears to be appropriately done in a quick / unprofessional manner. I’m assuming this is to try and make it fit in with the hand made style you might find on a farm.
The front side of the medallions has designs of Tiana, Prince Naveen and Louis with It’s a Joyful Celebration, Mama Odie and her Snake, a Family of Bears playing some instruments and The Bayou Where the Music is Magic, and my favorite Tiana with a plateful of Beignets.
Something that is a bit interesting is that the back designs are not all the same. The one with Tiana, Prince Naveen and Louis as a back design of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure 2024. The other three designs do have the same reverse image of Tiana, Louis and the ride vehicle filled with a few of the characters from the attraction.
If you continue walking past the photo preview area, you find yourself inside what I assume will eventually be a small gift shop, for now it just has a few murals for the ride that you can take photos in front of. Along one of the walls is the 8-design pressed penny machine.
The designs in this set are really great and all themed for the new attraction including some familiar faces and some new ones created just for the updated ride. There is also one right in the middle that is dated for 2024 so you know that one won’t be around for long. I’ll be curious to see if in the future they just change out that one design, or because each die ring has 4 designs, maybe we will get 4 new designs next year. We will be sure to keep checking back on this for updates.
Then as you exit you will pass by some restrooms, and then back into a courtyard. This is where you will want to turn to your left (opposite from the ride outside queue area) and you will see a new 4-design pressed penny machine tucked away near some water fountains.
I do like that the machine cabinets are all similarly designed with the wood carving This machine was a bit of a surprise as it was released a few weeks after the medallion and 8-design set.
These designs are really great and have so much detail to them. I hope we continue to see new designs like these moving forward.
For anyone that is interested I really enjoyed the new updated attraction. I think the story, music and new characters are wonderful and I’m looking forward to being able to experience it again in the future. For these medallions I really enjoy them as well and since one of them is dated for 2024 I’m thinking we can assume this will change at some point. Every year? That I don’t know. I feel this may be an “opening year” version, and it will change to something that will be around for a longer period of time at some point in the future. But either way I’ll keep an eye on it, and will report back with any changes.
With the summer in full swing that means it’s time for the Summer F.U.N. (Florida United Numismatists) Coin Show. Once again (thankfully for me) it was back at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando Florida.
You do need to pay for parking at the convention center, however there is a bit of a discount if you mention you are attending the coin show. There is no admission cost to attend the coin show, however you do need to fill out a little form with your name, address and contact info. Then take it to the check-in booths to receive your name tag, a souvenir tote bag and if you ask real nicely a special coin for the show, but we will talk about that a little later on.
Inside there were over 300 vendors, countless coin clubs, the U.S. Mint and the educational exhibits that are always great to check out.
It’s always amazing to see what’s available at this show. It can definitely be a bit overwhelming when you first walk in. I usually just start at one end and slowly make my walk through each aisle. Many of the vendors are very friendly and always looking to chat. Most of them have certain niches of the hobby that they specialize in, while others have quite a selection with a little bit of everything.
I did mention earlier that the U.S. Mint has a large area that is always very popular with collectors. They had a nice display with all the new 2024 proof sets. There are quite a few new coin designs this year which is nice to see. They also sell these sets as well as other limited edition coins so you can take them home with you immediately.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts about this event that even thought it’s labeled as a coin show, there is so much more available here. Lots of paper notes, sports cards, jewelry, comic books and I even saw a few Pokémon cards. Unfortunately not many elongated coins.
The educational exhibits are always fun to check out. The amount of work that members put into to these is incredible. In case you didn’t know I actually submitted an exhibit back in 2023 that you can read all about here.
This years event actually didn’t have a very large selection of exhibits and some of them looked familiar from previous years, and only one had some elongated coins.
It was an exhibit about the Central Florida Coin Club: A Journey Through Our Years. There were some very interesting documents and other items from the club’s history on display.
Then right at the top of one of the exhibit cases I saw a nice row of elongated coins that were commemorating the club’s 40th Anniversary in 1995. Not just that, but the coins were also rolled by Mr. Elongated Ray Dillard.
Now let me take some time to go over the coins I was able to collect during my visit. First was that coin show medallion I mentioned at the beginning. In years past they would just include one of these in the gifted tote bag, but I was informed that due to limited quantities they were only given them out upon request. You may notice in the pictures above that the January (winter) coin show dates are listed as this was originally created for that show and they then offer the left overs during the summer show.
While I was at the check-in booth, after I was given the show medallion the kind lady asked if I was interested in an elongated coin. My eyes immediately perked up and I nodded yes that would be wonderful. Above is a photo of the pressed penny that was designed and rolled by former TEC President Cindy Calhoun. Similar to the medallion this was created for the Winter show back in January which I was unable to attend this year. This was a wonderful surprise that I was able to acquire one for my collection.
The event adveterised there was over 300 vendors and I can honestly say I visited with almost all of them. I inquired whenever I could if anyone had any elongated coins for sale, or if they knew of anyone that had any for sale but no one seemed to have any. Except for one small table I came across about halfway through the show. There were two elongated coins sitting in a case among mostly some baseball cards. You can see the picture earlier in this post. I inquired about the coins for purchase and was given a little bit of a discount. They were both listed as $3.00 each but was able to get them for $4 total. The first one was of New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly.
The second coin was of Nolan Ryan celebrating his 7th No Hitter that happened on May 1st 1991. These both look to be part of a series. I’ve still been trying to find more information on these coins, who designed them and if there are any others as I’d love to work on collecting them all if they are part of a larger set. If any of you recognize these or has more details please leave me a comment below.
As always the show was great and I really enjoyed just taking my time walking around the entire show floor multiple times just seeing all that was available. Most of it was not what I’m into collecting, but that doesn’t mean they are any less important. Sometimes I see the dates listed on the coins and am just blown away realizing the history that has taken place during that coins life. These are small tokens that can definitely tell a story and is an amazing way to actually hold history in the palm of your hand.
It’s been a few weeks since my family last visited a Florida State Park. There are still quite a few that we haven’t explored yet.
This time we were heading towards the Gulf side of the state in Dunedin we crossed over the causeway bridge and into the Honeymoon Island State Park.
This trip was a bit unique. My parents have an adorable labradoodle named Sammie, and we found out that this State Park is animal friendly with a specific area of the beach set aside for dogs. Basically a Dog Beach and we thought this would make for a fun outing for our entire family including Sammie.
As with the other State Parks we have visited, there were plenty of nature trails. The only issue we ran into is that the pathways were made up mostly of basically beach sand since we were so close to the actual beach. This made walking a bit of a challenge, and certainly gave our legs a workout.
In the short time we have lived in Florida our family has checked out quite a few different beaches both on the Atlantic and Gulf side. In our opinions we always prefer the Gulf side and this was no exception.
Unfortunately for most of our day we had heavy cloud cover. This made the temperature quite a bit chillier than we were expecting, and the water was void of swimmers due to it’s low temperature a well. It always seemed like we were moments from getting rained on, thankfully we were able to avoid any precipitation. This also meant that not many other dogs made the trip out that day.
There is a fairly large Pavilion on the South Beach side of the island. This is where you will find the restrooms, changing rooms, and a small snack stand.
However, if you are interested in the pressed penny machine you actually need to go underneath this raised pavilion. It seems like a strange place for the machine, and if I hadn’t read about it in pennycollector.com I probably would have missed it and assumed the machine had been removed.
The machine located here is another of the Penny Pincher style models. Not my all time favorite as I find the final pressed penny can be hit or miss with the design either being cut off, or the penny rolled short.
As you can see from the image above, all of my pennies on this trip rolled short. Thankfully the main part of the image was fine, just the dotted border along the right side was cut off. I’ve definitely had worse results with these type of machines, but I was happy with these once for the most part.
With many pressed pennies I get from zoos, aquariums and other places with animals in the designs I’m usually just guessing as to what they are most of the time. This set however has a fun feature, on the reverse of each penny has the name of the critter along with the park website. I honestly wish they would do this more often, as it really is a huge help to us collectors when trying to identify the design.
It was a bit sad that our day was not a usual sunny Florida afternoon, and Sammie didn’t have too many other dogs around to play with. This park though was fantastic and we will definitely be coming back. I’ll just have to do a better job at double checking the weather conditions in advance. That makes one more Florida State Park we can check off our list, leaving quite a few more still to explore. Keep on Pressing!
The Elongated Collectors Club was founded in 1966, and since its creation has had thousands of members. Many are serious collectors, some just casual, and everyone else is somewhere in between. Then there are a few that have become synonymous not just within the elongated coin clubs, but also within the larger numismatic communities. Names like Dottie Dow, Lee Martin, and Frank Brazeel. However one probably stands out more than the rest and that is Mr. Raymond Dillard.
Photo Credit: Tyler Tyson
Born July 3rd 1925 on a farm outside of Parma Missouri, Ray was the 10th of 11 children in the family. He graduated high school in 1943 and soon met his future wife Elizabeth Stirling. They married in 1944 and raised two daughters Sherrie and Kathy. He enrolled in courses at General Motors Institute and IBM, eventually landing a position as an “office boy” at Chevrolet manufacturing. He was promoted many times throughout his career, and eventually found himself in the General Motors Central Office. He retired after 37 years with the company.
Photo Credit: TECNews
Ray started collecting coins in the 1960s, and then in the mid 1980s he began brining his elongated machine to ANA conventions. At coin shows Ray was easy to spot with his iconic blue jacket. He and his penny machine were well known at shows across the country.
Photo Credit: Cindy Calhoun
He has won numerous awards including being elected a numismatic ambassador, the ANA Presidential awards, and was inducted into the Numismatic Hall of Fame in 2017.
The Elongated Collectors club also created The Dillard Exhibit Award starting in 2014 that is given out to anyone who creates and elongated themed exhibit displayed at a coin show.
I had communicated quite a few times with Ray through email over the years, and was even lucky enough to acquire some elongated coins from his collection during a period when he was auctioning some of the off. One of which was this 1893 Columbia Expo seated dime which is one of my most prized elongated coins in my collection.
I also met him a couple times at a few coin conventions including the F.U.N. show here in Orlando Florida back in January 2020. We chatted for a little while and I’m always grateful for the time he took to sit and talk. Unfortunately what we didn’t know then is that would be the last event Ray would attend.
Ray Dillard passed away on March 8th 2020 at his home in Fenton Michigan. He is survived by his daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Photo Credit: Cindy Calhoun
Over the years Ray had created somewhere around 1800 coin designs. His estate is working with The Elongated Collectors to try and update his coin catalog. There were over 60 crates in his basement of all the elongated he had created over the years. This is a massive project but one that Ray would have loved to see completed, and will be an important part of elongated coin history.
When Ray passed away he had been working on the Central States Numismatic Society’s 2020 show coin. This would end up being Ray’s last project. The die for this coin was still in his machine, and a bag of rolled pennies was discovered nearby. These coins were sent by TEC officers to the CSNS to fulfill Ray’s obligation of creating the coins. The convention however was canceled due to the pandemic and the coins then sat in storage until 2024 when they were then offered at the convention in May. The design was rolled on copper U.S. cents, and depicts a steam locomotive emerging from the CSNS logo, with dates and location for the canceled 2020 show.
Friend and fellow collector Jim McNally was able to get permission and acquired some of the coins to share with other collectors. He also created a souvenir card about the size of a baseball card in an eye catching blue color that reflects Ray’s iconic jacket. The card is a great keepsake that highlights the coins unique story.
Past TEC President Cindy Calhoun said that the best tribute we can pay to Ray is to be like him. Keep smiling, pass on the joy of elongated with everyone we meet, and do what we love until the very end.
Not too long ago we visited the new Walt Disney World Store that is off-property (actually much closer to the Universal parks) over on International Drive. During that initial visit we found a pressed penny machine that was previously thought to have been retired, and you can read about that here. The store wasn’t as big as I thought it would be, and the selection is the same as we can find in many of the parks so I wasn’t really anticipating a return trip.
However that changed just recently when I was informed that a new collectible medallion machine has been placed here.
After arriving I parked in the nearby lot and headed inside. Disney is pretty well known for their circulation of merchandise. If you see something you like, it’s probably best to pick it up at that time because you just never know if it will still be there the next time you visit. Unfortunately it seems like this store really didn’t change much since my last visit. They still had a nice selection, but just nothing new was standing out in my eyes.
That is until I found the Collectible Medallion machine along one of the side walls near the DVC Riviera Resort model we checked out last time.
The machine cabinet is a pretty standard design with a wood grain exterior. It does match its look to the nearby pressed penny machine. Since this store is almost like a welcome center, I would have loved to see a vinyl wrap with images from all the different parks or even just covered in Disney characters. Something to help make it stand out a bit more, this is a pretty plain looking machine.
Although I guess it’s what’s inside that we are really interested in anyways. This machine has four new designs, one for each of the Theme Parks. Magic Kingdom with Mickey and Pluto, EPCOT with Donald and Daisy, Hollywood Studios with Goofy, and Animal Kingdom with Minnie. Each also has the park icon included in the image.
The image on the reverse side of each coin are all the same. It shows off Mickey with his arms stretched out, the Walt Disney World logo across the top, WDW Logo on the left side, ’71 (opening year) on the right side, and around the circumference of the coin are all of the park names. You will notice that each coin is a different color which I think is a nice touch and helps differentiate between them. In my opinion I really like the Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom medallions best with their almost tarnished matte look to them.
Will we see any more machines at this store, I don’t think so although that’s what I said last time so who knows. If they do add any more, or replace the designs available I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as it happens. Keep on Collecting!
In a previous post we review the dated 2024 Medallion Set that you can read here. There are a few other non-dated mini-sets that we are going to be reviewing. First we checked out a Winnie the Pooh medallion set you can read here, second was the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs medallion set you can read here, and we conclude today with the Marvel Avengers numbered set. Below we will explain where each of the coins can be found, photos of the machine and of course beautiful photos of the medallions themselves. Enjoy and Keep on Collecting!
#1 Captain America – Disney Springs Pin Traders
The first medallion in this set is at Disney Springs inside the big Pin Traders store. There is only one medallion machine (but a few penny machines) so this one should be easy to find. Medallion number one features the First Avenger Captain America.
#2 Iron Man – All-Star Sports Resort
Next we travel over to the All-Star Sports resort. Heading inside the main lobby building you will find this machine inside the World Premier Food Court. Medallion number two features Iron Man.
#3 Thor – All-Star Sports Resort
A short walk or drive away is the All-Star Sports resort. This time we still head inside the main lobby building, but the medallion machine will be along the main hallway wall just outside the Game Point Arcade. Medallion number three shows off the God of Thunder Thor.
#4 Hulk – Contemporary Resort
For the next medallion we head over to the iconic Contemporary Resort, also known as the resort where the monorail goes right through the building. You will need to head to the Fourth Floor Concourse, to the right of the monorail security check, past the arcade and you will see it up against the wall with a pressed penny machine. Medallion number four has quite an intimidating image of the big green guy, Hulk.
#5 Black Widow – Disney Springs World of Disney Machine #1
Back over at Disney Springs we head inside the giant World of Disney Store. There are two medallion machines here, we are looking for one of them near the check out area on the side closest to the “Lego Store”. Medallion number five features the deadly assassin Black Widow.
#6 Hawkeye – Disney Springs World of Disney Machine #1
Don’t go anywhere, we are sticking with this same machine for medallion number six that has a design of Hawkeye.
#7 Vision – Disney Springs World of Disney Machine #2
Now we need to head a little further inside the World of Disney store. This second medallion machine is near the large t-shirt section of the store up against a wall. Medallion number seven will have an image of Vision. We will be back to this machine shortly.
#8 Black Panther – Polynesian Village Resort
Time for a little island time so we head over to the Polynesian Village resort. In the main lobby building, just head up to the second floor and the machine is located just outside the Moana Mercantile store. This machine has medallion number eight featuring Black Panther.
#9 War Machine – All-Star Music Resort
Inside the All-Star Music Resort we find the medallion machine outside the Note’ Able Arcade inside the main lobby building. This has medallion number nine featuring the heavily armored War Machine.
#10 Ant Man – Disney Springs Pin Traders
We have to head back over to Disney Springs to the Pin Trader store for medallion number ten that showcases Ant-Man.
#11 Wasp – Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Inside the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa’s main lobby building, head to the second floor and the medallion machine is located near the doors to the Monorail station. At this machine we find medallion number eleven featuring Wasp.
#12 Falcon – Disney Springs World of Disney Machine #2
We certainly have been all over Disney property with this set and here we are finishing it up back at Disney Springs inside the World of Disney Store at the machine we visited earlier. This time we can collect medallion number twelve with Falcon.
Inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom as you walk towards the park icon The Tree of Life there is a large gift shop to the right called the Discovery Trading Company.
This has always been home to a few pressed penny machines, but their locations over the years have moved around a bit. They also had quite a selection of designs available including most recently a few from the Disney Company’s 100th Anniversary Set and a smaller Animal Kingdom 25th Anniversary set.
With both of those celebrations completed it was only a matter of time before the coin designs were replaced. Thankfully for us collectors that time has finally come, and even better, we didn’t get old designs returned instead brand new designs.
Previously these machines could be found inside the store, but in the last couple years they have been moved outside and kind of tucked away in a corner. It’s across from the Doug & Russell from Up! meet and greet area if that helps narrow down the location.
I always enjoy seeing this wall of penny machines, and just look at those cabinet designs they are incredible. Over on our Youtube channel I created a video about my Top 5 favorite Disney Pressed Penny Machine cabinets which you can check out here, and these were among them. But you’ll have to check out the video to see where they placed.
Each machine didn’t get a full set of new designs, instead just one or two designs. First up let’s check out the machine all the way on the left. The center design with the Animal Kingdom park logo has remained unchanged. The other two designs are brand new and include a fun image of Timon holding some bugs titled Jungle Grub. The third design is of Asha, Valentino and Star from the new movie Wish.
The middle machine has also left the center design alone which displays the Harambe Elephant. The other two designs are new including Doug from Up! with a squirrel on his head, and a coin with Explorer Mickey on it.
The final machine all the way to the right has kept two if its designs. The first has Randall monster from Pixar’s Monsters, Inc and has been available here for a long time. The center design is part of the current 2024 dated set with an image of The Tree of Life. The last design is the newly released one and has Donald’s three nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louis.
There you have the new pressed penny designs over at the Discovery Trading Company gift ship. I’m always happy to see new designs released and I think these latest ones are a great addition. Plus you can get up close to these amazingly detailed cabinets and I always say high to the large crabs sitting on top holding their own pennies to press. Keep on Pressing!
Summer has arrived and Universal Studios has officially opened their new Tribute Store which is always a unique experience. In previous versions they have had special medallions, but they were absent from the Holiday store so we will have to cross our fingers that the machine has returned.
The store has again returned to the Hollywood section of the park. There was talk about it returning to the New York section by the Mummy attraction but that seems to not be the case.
Each Tribute Store usually has a theme and this one is no different. This version is setup to be kind of like a retro strip mall that contains a Mega Video Rental Store, the Mega Castle Arcade and a Tribute Theater.
When you first enter the store you find yourself inside the Mega Video Rental Store. The employee desk is incredibly detailed and scattered with all sorts of easter eggs. The walls are lined with faux video tapes to rent and are of some actual Universal movies, plus a few Halloween Horror Night exclusives.
The second area is the Mega Castle Arcade decked out with plenty of black lights and neon all along the walls. There are some arcade games available and this is also where you will find the sweet treat counter.
Many of the snacks here are similar to previous versions just updated with different decorations. I loved the way these cake pops looked celebrating E.T. Jaws and Shrek.
The arcade is also home to a brand new collectible medallion machine. The cost has remained unchanged (unlike Disney) and are $5 each or you can get the full set of four designs (or four of one design if you like) for $15 which I think is a great deal. All four designs have the same design on the reverse which is just the Universal Studios Florida globe logo and copyright information along the bottom.
The medallions this time around I think have really great designs with plenty of little details. First we have a Jaws coin with large Shark mouth, Bite Me, The Original Amity Island, Beaches Closed. So many little nods to the movie this was is really great. Next is a Back to the Future design with the Delorean in flight and 1985 across the bottom along with a few Hazard logos you may recognize. Third is of E.T. with his healing finger and Phone Home in the center. Lastly is the iconic ECTO-1 from Ghostbusters.
Now I know we have the coins and probably just want to leave, but the last room in the Tribute Store is themed like a Movie Theater lobby. Decked out with some classic Coming Soon posters, and plenty of merchandise.
This room was fun and each wall was decorated for a different movie, E.T. , Ghostbusters and Back to the Future. There were some amazing decorations up high along the perimeter of the ceiling but honestly most of the merchandise in this area I’ve seen before and in other Universal stores.
The arcade was definitely my favorite room and brought me back to weekends when I was much younger spending hours and hours playing video games. Thankfully there was much less smoking that there was in the old days, and we got this great set of new collectible medallions. The Tribute Store will be around through the end of July and early August at the latest but then it will be transitioned into the Halloween version so don’t take too long in visiting and getting your set of coins.
The second quarter of 2024 has begun and that means it was time for a new edition of the TEC News. It’s the Official Newsletter of The Elongated Collectors club. I’ve talked about the club many times in the past and have nothing but high praise for it. The newsletter is great, the unique elongated coins you receive are a great addition to your collection, plus the wealth of knowledge from all the other members is worth the subscription price.
Now in this latest edition I was enjoying all the new articles when I come across something that immediately caught my eye.
It was a save the date notice for an upcoming Online auction. I’ve participating in a couple in-person auctions during annual membership meetings and they were always a lot of fun. So I reached out to register, received my confirmation and marked the date on my calendar.
A week after I registered an email arrived with a PDF copy of the auction catalog. It was a 113 page document, with a total of 123 lots (items) that would be available in the auction. This was a great way to scope out what was going to be up for grabs, and I was able to make a bit of a wish list. The items ranged from some hard to find and unique elongated coins, to convention bases, poker chips, and even some highly sought after elongated coin encyclopedias.
The day before the auction I received another email with the zoom link. It was requested that we not share this link on social media, as it was just for members that had registered to attend the auction. The day finally came, I logged in and waited for the items I was interested in so I could start bidding.
There was quite a few members in attendance and some of the items really had some fun back and forth bidding going on. There was probably about a half dozen items I was looking to bid on, but a few went higher that I wanted to pay. But I was able to successfully win a few items.
First up was this Happy Father’s Day elongated half dollar, with Dad in the middle and I loved the little smiley face in the center of the “a”. It just reminded me of something my daughters would have designed. With Father’s Day coming soon I figured why not get myself an early gift. In case you were wondering I’ll include the amounts I paid for each of these items. For the Dad coin I paid $20.
Next was lot number 123 an elongated penny (US Cent) Merry Xmas North Brunswick New Jersey. The design also had Jack and Peg Wilcox listed which I’m not sure if this design was created by them, or for them. Either way this was a fun looking coin design and I was intrigued by the unique border design around the edge of the coin. I used to live in New Jersey and just thought this would make a nice addition to my collection. Winning bid was $27.
The last item I was able to acquire was this one featuring some very special and hard to find Disneyland elongated nickels. Let me explain a bit about these coins, they are actually Cast Member (employee) exclusives. There is a special coin press available in an employee only area where they can insert coins as a donation to the red cross and the machine will then press these keepsakes as a thank you for the donation.
The reverse side of each coin has a special backstamp featuring the Disney VoluntEAR logo and for these versions they included “Celebrating 30 magic years”. Due to these only being available to Cast Members there are not many out in circulation. They do show up on eBay from time to time but usually got for $100 or more. Most times I’ve only seen one coin at a time, making it even more difficult to get a full set. When this came up for bidding I immediately jumped in and had the amount at $50 but then tapped out when it went beyond that. I was trying to not let the bidding on my end get too out of control. It eventually was won by another member and I thought I had let them slip away. However, I didn’t realize that there were actually three sets available. So the winner bidder was asked how many sets they would like, and opted for just one. The second bidder was offered a set at the winning bid amount and was accepted. Now as if the Universe knew I was wanted them, since I was the third person to be part of the bidding they asked if I was interested and immediately agreed to pay the amount of $70 for the set.
The auction eventually ended and had run almost two hours in total. It was nice to see and chat with some familiar faces that I hadn’t seen since the last FUN coin show in Orlando. After the auction concluded a few days later I received an email with my invoice and instructions on how to pay via PayPal or check. Once payment was sent it took about a week for the coins to arrive at my home.
Overall it was a great experience and I’m looking forward to the next online auction. There was talk about maybe having another one later this year so I’ll be waiting for more details on that. I’ve also been thinking about putting together a donation of coins to submit to the auction, maybe a special set of Walt Disney World coins. All the proceeds from the auction go towards the TEC club and helps them keep things running, attend coin shows and of course to help fund more interesting events like this one.
If you are not already a member I would recommend heading over to the website I have linked here. You can get some additional information, and if you do decide to sign up be sure to list my TEC# 4237 as it will help me earn a recruiter elongated coin which are always great to receive. The membership amount is very reasonable for what you get and maybe I’ll see you in the next online auction. Keep on Pressing!
David's Coin Travels 