It Takes a Keen Eye to Spot
The Very Hard to Find DR0087 Elongated Coin

The DR0087 may not look unique, but, it’s surly one of a kind when it comes to how short a time it was on-stage and how long a time it may take collectors to find one of their own. Operational, on-stage for only two hours! It’s making history as the shortest lived elongated coin ever at the Disneyland® Resort. Here’s what we know about it and its nearly twin coin, the DR0090.

On September 30, 2004 three new coins were placed on-stage to replace the Little Mermaid set at The World Of Disney store in Downtown Disney, Anaheim, California. Here are pictures of the coins:

As you can see, these coins are nicely engraved, feature dot borders and back stamps. Not to mention the machine is, as you can see, rolling well.

Within two weeks, the above described set of three coins was taken off stage. On the morning of Friday, October 15th, a report was received here at ParkPennies from Advanced Collector, N. Wooten that the World of Disney center door machine had returned. It was observed that although the dies or obverse images on the coins did not appear to have changed, the back stamps had been replaced with new Disneyland Resort two line script type logos as shown here:

As luck would have it, within a couple of hours of the machine’s arrival, it was inoperative. (Somehow the machine must have known I was on the way. ) Over the next couple of days, this collector and others camped out on more than one occasion with the hope that the machine would be brought back to life. Several attempts were made without success. More than one collector reported that they had witnessed or been told by World of Disney Staff that the machine started smoking at least on one occasion. This collector observed the machine on two occasions acting as if it was jammed and attempting to run without a circuit breaker to shut it off. Surprisingly, the rollers appeared to be clear¹.

A few days later, the machine was taken off stage for nearly two weeks while speculation and rumors grew. (All covered here on ParkPennies as it happened of course. ) Then on 10/29/04, ParkPennies staff collector, Boomer, was passing by the World of Disney store on the way to the park stopped to check.... and noticed a machine sitting inside! The store opened about a half hour later. Just inside the center door was the machine and it appeared to have the 10/15/04 set waiting to be pressed! Samples were made and after examination, it was found that indeed the 10/15/04 set had almost returned. The back stamp was the same, the images appeared at first glance to be the same, however, the Huey, Dewy and Louie die had been replaced with a similar die. The DR0087 was gone and the DR0090 was in its place.

Here is a picture of the original Huey, Dewy and Louie die, coin numbers DR0084 or DR0087 (Depending on the type of back stamp.) and the new Huey, Dewy and Louie die coin number DR0090.

Would the real Huey, Dewy and Louie DR0087 please stand out? Click here to view a detailed close-up.

The pictures above are small to save on bandwidth. To see better pictures in the frames above this one, or in a separate window for those viewing these pages without frames, you may use these links for the "Gone in the blink of an eye" DR0087 and the new DR0090 or view them in the DR Disneyland® Resort Area Guide.

If they still look pretty much the same, you are not alone! Sure, some "Advanced Collectors" could find several small detail differences between the the old and new Huey, Dewy and Louie coins especially if they had both coins right next to each other, but how can we tell if we see a coin at a Disneyana show or eBay? Which one is it? The one on-stage for a couple of hours, or not? Makes a big difference yes?

As you know, ParkPennies is all about identifying Disneyland elongated coins. So, here is what we feel is one of the easier ways to tell the DR0087 and DR0090 apart. If you look closely, you will notice there is a small die scratch on the DR0090 at about eight o’clock, starting at the dot just below the webbed foot and extending out and downward. It’s only on the DR0090. (As you know, this would be a "raised" scratch on the coin not to be mistaken for a scratch "in" the coin.) And, there are several other small differences between the two coins. Some of them are highlighted here in the enlarged detail comparison.

A comparison of all the back stamps in this set can be viewed via this detail page. (This large image will open in a separate window.) This comparison was made to determine if any change in obverse / reverse combinations were made or if the back stamps changed. As you can see in the close up comparison, they did not change. And, this collector hopes that such changes never take place.

We hope you find the information on this web page helpful and will keep on visiting and telling your friends. Your support is very much appreciated!

Happy collecting!

¹ Several reports have suggested, implied or speculated that the DR0087 penny die failed while in use. Mentions have been made of a crack or break in the die. This author has not personally seen the die, however, given the many reports and the plausibility of such an event based on the known facts, this rumor is reported here for your own evaluation.