Pressed pennies are a classic tradition that many guests at Walt Disney World love to collect. You’ll find pressed penny machines at Disney World all around the theme parks and resorts. They are an inexpensive collectible for kids and adults alike.
The coin press machines all have different penny designs for you to collect with a featured character and featured rides. There are special edition ones, such as for the holidays or unique coins for anniversaries.
Today we’re going to share our ultimate guide to pressed pennies, where to find the pressed penny machines and how you can get started with this fun activity. We’ll share how much it will cost you to press a penny and how you can prepare to take part in this fun tradition before your upcoming vacation.
Where Can You Find the Pressed Penny Machines?
Pressed penny machines can be found across the Walt Disney World resort, including the theme parks, water parks, resorts and even Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. There are a mix of older hand-cranked machines and new touch screen machines and the designs change often.
Before a Walt Disney World vacation, we recommend downloading the My Disney Experience app.This app has many great features, but for pressed penny collectors, it offers the locations of all the machines near you.
Instead of spending hours walking around the theme parks trying to find where machines are hidden, you’ll find a map you can browse through to find one nearby.
Pressed Penny Machine Locations
This is a list from guest services at Disney World, where you can find the complete list of the locations of the penny press machines.
- Magic Kingdom park
- EPCOT
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park
- Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park
- Disney’s Blizzard Beach water park
- Disney Resort hotels (select locations)
- Disney Springs
- ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
- Fantasia Gardens and Fairways Miniature Golf
- Winter Summerland Miniature Golf
The more places you visit on your trip, the more coins you’ll be able to collect, allowing you to create a unique collection that shares the story of your vacation.
How Much Does It Cost to Press a Penny?
At the current time, you’ll find that pressed pennies cost you one dollar, but this will vary from machine to machine. Some of the machines still accept dollar bills, but with some of the new machines the only way to pay is with a credit card or Apple pay.
Other machines in the resort charge three dollars, where you receive multiple pennies, and others will be five dollars for eight coins. As you can see, you’ll need to carefully check the machine you are purchasing your coins from to make sure you aren’t paying more than you expected for what you are after.
One thing previous visitors will notice is that the price has increased a lot from the past when it used to be just 51 cents for a single coin. All you needed were two quarters and one penny. With this change, it is nice not to have to carry rolls of quarters and a bag of pennies around!
Even with the price increase, it is still an inexpensive and fun souvenir for your vacation and one of the best value-for-money ways to entertain your kids on your next trip to Walt Disney World.
Do I Need To Bring My Own Pennies?
In the past, many visitors to the parks spent forever collecting shiny new pennies ahead of their trip to create the perfect pressed penny each and every time. Now, you’ll find that you don’t need to bring any pennies at all, as these are included in the payment fee.
You won’t have to carry your own coins with you on your trip, which makes joining in with this activity much easier in this day and age. Instead, Disney automatically uses new uncirculated pennies for each pressed penny, ensuring your coin collection looks perfect every time now.
The Best Ways to Collect and Display Pressed Pennies
For anyone who is particularly keen to collect Walt Disney World pressed pennies, you might be wondering what you’ll do with them once you’ve pressed them. In almost every resort gift shop you’ll find that they sell pressed penny collectors books, which make it easy to safely collect your pressed coins.
As these pressed pennies are a small souvenirs, you’ll want to make sure you put them somewhere safe, or you may easily lose them in your bag or pockets.
Pressed pennies can also be displayed in more creative ways when you get home, such as on a dish or on a display on the wall. It’s all about using your creativity to find a way to display your collection after spending hours running around the resorts collecting these pennies.
Pressed Penny Sets
Some of the machines allow you to purchase a full set of pressed pennies as well as single pennies. While you would usually pay $1 for each coin, you’ll be able to get a discount when you buy them in bulk.
Most of the machines offer eight coins for $5, which saves you a fair bit of money if you are looking to build your collection very quickly. It is the best value to just purchase full sets like this!
What Age Group Can Enjoy Collecting Pressed Pennies?
One of the things we love about pressed pennies at Walt Disney World is that this activity is suitable for almost anyone. As long as your children are old enough to handle pennies safely, they’ll love running around the resort searching for them.
It’s a good way to keep your young children out of the gift shops spending too much money, as they’ll be far too invested in becoming a Disney coin collector.
We find that teenagers and adults still enjoy collecting pressed pennies as well. As you get older, you may have more appreciation for the different designs on offer and the rarer pennies.
If you have a favorite character, you may opt to create a themed collection for one trip based on a certain character or movie. There’s no limit to the number of ways in which you can collect these pennies, so find a way that suits your budget and idea of having fun in the parks.
How Many Pressed Penny Machines Are There at Walt Disney World?
If you think you can visit every machine during one visit to the theme parks, you may have a huge task on your hands. In fact, in the Magic Kingdom alone, there are 33 machines, with a total of 181 pressed pennies to collect.
EPCOT has 31 machines, Disney’s Hollywood Studios offers 25 machines, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom has 23 machines. You’ll also find that some of the parks have pressed quarter machines, which open up a whole new range of coins to collect.
This isn’t even counting the machines at the different resorts, water parks, mini golf courses and Disney Springs!
We don’t think anyone will really be able to visit all of the machines in one trip, but that just means you have something to look forward to on your next vacation.
Create Your Own Pressed Penny Holder
There’s no denying that a trip to Walt Disney World soon adds up in costs, which is why we are always looking for ways to save money on your vacation. If you want a cheap way to store your pressed pennies, then consider using a pill bottle or an empty tube.
You can then decorate this bottle with your name or your child’s name, as well as stickers or pictures of their favorite characters. This would be a great way to store a themed collection, as you can decorate each tube to match the coins that are inside.
Are Pressed Pennies Still Worth Collecting in 2025?
If you have young children, you’ll find that the novelty of this activity is still as strong as ever before. It’s one of the best ways to create a fun collection during your vacation without spending a fortune.
While there are other activities such as Pin Trading to consider, these soon add up in cost, especially when you have multiple children. Large families appreciate the variety of coins on offer throughout the resorts, allowing each child to make their own unique collection.
The 50th Anniversary of Magic Kingdom and the 100 Anniversary of Disney has now ended, and with it ended the special edition coins. That means in 2025 there will be a new design to collect at many of the different machines!
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the pressed penny machines are just as popular now as they were when they first came out with the hand-cranked machines that only took coins. It’s a great way to take a special memory of your trip at the most magical place on Earth home with you without spending a fortune.
We recommend preparing as much as possible for your trip by collecting some dollar bills and finding a storage solution for your pressed pennies.
No matter your age, you are never too old to start collecting pressed pennies and enjoying this fun tradition that has been around for many years.
Read Also: Disney Silhouette Portraits: An Affordable Souvenir
