The 2010 Tokyo Disneyland Resort "Pressed Pennies"
Now Number More Than 100 A Year, Way More! |
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Wow! Tokyo Disneyland pressed penny collecting has come a long way! As advanced collectors will remember, back in 1996, when The Tokyo Disneyland Resort first introduced souvenir metals or "pressed pennies" as they call them, only three coins were issued that entire year. Well, okay, there were two variations of each, let's say six. Not hard to keep track of them, not too hard to obtain one of each. After all, they didn't change all that often and there were not that many. You had time to press new coins and a complete year's collection cost less than $10.00 at the park. Most anyone could collect them all... however, very few people collected Tokyo Disneyland Resort pressed pennies in the early years, especially in the United States, compared to nowadays. So, if you were lucky enough to build a set then, you have some real "keepers" today.
By 2009, things were picking up. Nearly a hundred different new coins were issued just in Tokyo Disneyland Park, then there were dozens more issued in Tokyo DisneySea, and dozens more were issued outside the gates in the resort hotel areas too! (Please don't ask about the exploding number of new machines in the Disney Stores throughout Japan!) Not as easy to collect them all, many were onstage for only a month, some for only a week! A collection of the year's coins became a "bit" more expensive too, maybe ah... 50 times more expensive than in 1996! AND you might miss one! (deep breath....)
The silver lining: More fun collecting opportunities and collections that are only as challenging as you want. Today, collectors are building Tokyo Disneyland sets that are just the early years, just Tokyo DisneySea, just prototypes, just a favorite character, etc. One of our favorite collections are the coin of the month sets. They started back in 2004, at the Tokyo DisneySea Park. They became super popular. It wasn't long before there was also a coin of the month machine at Tokyo Disneyland Park, then another! Each machine offers one coin each month. So, over a year's time, a set of 12 matching coins is issued by each machine, like clockwork. Each is a great collection on its own. Take a look at all the Tokyo Disneyland coin of the month collections or more detail guide pages by year in the Tokyo Disneyland Park coins of the month and Tokyo DisneySea coins of the month guides. Tell us about your Tokyo Disneyland collection. |
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