Short Grip DL0001
Earliest known example of the first
Official onstage Disney elongated coin

Above is a comparison of a the DL0001 pressed penny coin grip slots. Close examination reveals that the die was originally engraved with a short grip slot, possibly too short to grab and hold a coin edge reliably. The next DL0001, which was known to have been on-stage, has a slightly modified "Intermediate Grip". The third example of a DL0001, has a "Long Grip" and was also known to have been on-stage. As per our guide policies, a die as it is first seen onstage is given a guide number with a suffix, e.g. DL0001. When the original onstage die is modified, the guide number is changed and given a suffix, e.g. DL0001a. However, as of 2010 we have not yet established if the DL0001 coin grip was modified before or after it was placed onstage. And, for now, I'm using that as an excuse not to deal with the slightly modified / more modified coin grip issue.

We believe the earliest example may be a "progressive" die proof or test roll, made possibly by the engraver / manufacturer before the die was shipped to Disneyland and placed on stage. We have very early on-stage examples of the DL0001 pressed at Disneyland Park. All show gripper modification. Given the earliest example shows no modification or enlargement of the grip slot and the on-stage examples show modification to the grip slot, we believe that the coins with modified coin grip slots pictured above may represent the second and third profiles of the die before it was placed on-stage.

As of mid 2007, ParkPennies.com is unaware of an example of a DL0001 with a completely unmodified or enhanced grip slot, which if found, would represent the first profile of the grip slot. If you have an example of that coin, please contact us, we'd love to add the image to this page. Our thanks to Alan S. for sharing his scan and discovery of the early grip DL0001, a very early example of the first Disney pressed penny ever on-stage.

UPDATE: In January of 2010, an example of an unmodified DL0001 was offered for sale on Ebay by a person that stated in their auction: "Here is the very rare first pressed penny made for Disneyland by Centek out of Wheat Ridge, Colorado in 1986. I was part of the ownership group at that time and know that that there are probably just a handful of these coins still floating around. Best of luck to the lucky collector who ends up with this rare coin." Given the owner's statement, ParkPennies.com will (forgive us we don't do this often) assume that the coin auctioned was pressed before the die was shipped to Disneyland. (At least until we can locate a short(er) grip coin that is known to have been pressed onstage at the park.)

To view the DL0001 guide entries which offer more information about this coin and others like it, please see: DL Disneyland Park Pressed Penny Guide Section 1, comparison of other Disneyland "Mickey Rays or SunBurst" pressed pennies or a larger picture of the DL0001 coin grip modifications.