So... I'm Going To Disney World In A Month

The Royal Australian Mint used to stamp privy marks on previously minted coins, in front of the buyer, at major coin shows. 'S' for Sydney, 'B' for Brisbane, 'M' for Melbourne, etc.

The privy marks do, in fact, add some value to an otherwise un privy marked equivalent.

Nothing so exotic I'm afraid.THIS and THIS are what you get. Instead of putting a penny in the machine, you put a quarter.

I ended up with a big sack of these things, wondered what they were.

Rick

The machines press cents and cost a quarter (well, 26¢, the quarter plus the cent).

I went to Disney World recently and took some pictures, so I can post them here.

Some of the machines have the crank handles which I like; whereas others you just push a button, which I find a little disappointing.

As far as pressing quarters, I didn't do it. Lots of tourist attractions have penny machines, but this is the first time I've ever seen one for quarters. I did not see any for dimes or nickels. Pennies cost $0.51 and quarters cost $1.25.

Here are some pics of the machines. The two on the left are hand cranked penny machines, the two on the right are one each of push-button penny and quarter machines.


Older 1981 and earlier copper pennies press better than zincolns. The zinc alloy leaves streaks. When I would ask a cashier for pennies they thought they were doing me a favor by giving me shiny new pennies, which is not what I wanted. So if you can, plan on bringing a roll or two of copper pennies. IHC or wheaties would be a good idea.

I also found that if you always orient the penny the same way you can guarantee the date shows on the backside.

Here is Ariel on a copper penny - this was a wheatie from change so I oriented it to highlight the reverse:


And here is a dwarf (Grumpy?) on a zinc penny - notice the streaks:


As far as value, I don't think they'll ever have a significant value to anyone besides you. So if you want a silver quarter for your souvenir box, that's fine, but don't count on anyone else wanting to pay you for it.

I used the parkpennies website which has good maps that I found to be 95% reliable. Some machines were moved or the dies were changed. I didn't know about the presscoins site at the time, but it looks good.

You'll spend a ton of money if you try to get one of each, so you have to ration yourself and decide who your favorite characters or favorite movies are.

I know you asked about quarters so forgive me for speaking so much about pennies.

-wheatiefan

I will be going to Disney when I get home from Afghanistan, and I will definitely be getting 1 or 2 Princess pennies for my 4 year old daughter. but I wont be collecting them or anything.

What are the disney dollars? I have never heard of them.

The coins I have seen have some collector value. But I just want them for my personal collection.

I have a pressed penny from when my family and I visited the Kennedy Space Centre. It featured the insignia from one of the Apollo missions and on the other side the date, 1973, is still visible. I like it as a keepsake but doubt it will have any value as a collector's item. I like how in the states you can press real coins. The presses I've seen in Canada use copper slugs as far as I can recall.