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 Medals 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 for 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, the world of Tokyo Disneyland pressed penny was growing very rapidly. Nearly a hundred different new pressed penny and pressed nickel coins were issued just in Tokyo Disneyland Park that year plus 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 concurrent explosion in the number of new penny press machines in the Disney Stores throughout Japan!) Not as easy to collect them all as it was in the early years. Many pressed pennies 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 ways to collect is a coin of the month set. They started back in 2004, at the Tokyo DisneySea Park and became super popular. Before long, coin of the month machine was added 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. Do take a look at all the Tokyo Disneyland coin of the month collections.