The First Disneyland Park
Seasonal or Christmas Nickels
1995-2019
(Season's Greetings, Holiday, New Years) See The Disneyland Christmas Nickels Collection Guide
A Fun Subset of The Disneyland Park Nickel Collection Issued Around Christmas time
Pressed nickel collecting can be an excellent choice for many Disney Fans. Since their introduction in 1995, elongated five cent pieces have been exclusive to Disneyland Park, Anaheim, the only Disney park in the world to offer pressed nickels1. Quickly, these five center’s became the favorite coins of many collectors as well as non-collectors. They are larger, heavier, do not tarnish and there are no worries about zinc or copper content. If you didn’t already guess, yes, they are this author’s favorite denomination too .
Cost for on-stage coins is 75 cents plus a nickel to be pressed, if you are in the park while the machine is available. Values, in today’s market, for those of us that didn’t press them in the park, range from about one dollar each for currently on-stage coins to nearly one thousand dollars each for Prototype "Penny Art" nickels. However, as longtime collectors will advise, searching for bargains, trading and purchasing coins early rather than after they are long retired can save some serious cash.
Of interest to new collectors... At the time of this writing, retired seasonal sets, post 1998, are less expensive than one would expect as some on-line auctioneers make a point of pressing lots of them and then auctioning the coins for years after. That practice provides opportunity to more easily acquire coins collectors may have missed at the park. Non-seasonal set nickels are generally available at reasonable prices for the same reasons, with the exception of the very scarce DL0225 nickel set detail.
Sadly the Holiday pressed nickel tradition came to an end with the last issued sets in Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure in 2019. In 2020, COVID-19 disrupted the United States. The Disneyland Resort was not spared. Following the COVID-19
pandemic, much changed at Walt Disney's Original Amusement Park. The coin press machines that had been supported by the Electro-Mechanical Cast Members since the start in 1987, were contracted out. "Press Your Own Coin" machines were replaced by machines that vended pressed pennies from internal hoppers. No new nickel, dime or quarter machines were to be found... including Holiday nickel sets. Today they are sought after collections. The Disneyland Holiday pressed nickel sets ran every year from 1995-2019, 25 years(!) and the Disney California Holiday nickel sets ran from 2010 to 2019, ten fun years.
Editorial :-) You may have noticed that the Seasonal Nickel or Christmas Set has to be, one of my favorites!
Fellow collectors know that I believe seasonal nickels are one of the best collecting choices for both new and advancing collectors. As we know, the first Disney pressed nickel was issued in 1995, and later that year, the first Seasonal Nickel Set was issued. To the delight of collectors, Disneyland has issued another set of three very cool seasonal nickels every year though 2019.
There are several reasons why the seasonal nickel sets represent a great collecting choice for many people. Some collectors prefer dated coins and the annual sets are usually dated. Collectors often want a limited collectible. Seasonal nickels represent consecutive years and the time they were available onstage was comparatively limited. Also, the sets are consistent sets of nickels often with one nickel "Season’s Greetings", one "Happy Holidays", and one "Happy New Year". Great for framing!
Best of all, back in the day, they provide an extra incentive to visit the park over the Holidays! Traditionally, collectors would begin to salivate around the first week of November and often can ponce upon these very cool collectibles sometime before the fourth week of the month through mid to late January when the coins are traditionally retired. (The Seasonal Nickel Sets were also pressed by some non-collectors as Christmas card stuffers.)
1 Tokyo Disneyland offers a "nickel" planchet. However, it is actually pressed from a vended nickel-colored copper planchet rather than a U.S. coin. Additionally, non-native denomination WDW and Disneyland nickels are known, but, not listed here due to their scarcity and / or extreme cost.
Related ParkPennies Guide(s) featuring close up pictures, descriptions and detail comparisons: DL Disneyland Park Guides
Early Cast Member
and Special Event Nickels
1995+
(A fun and challenging addition to any Disneyland Resort Nickel Collection)
Some Cast Member and Special Event issues are "harder to find" coins or should I say "more fun to find" coins. Costs are not too high and they are occasionally seen at "deal" prices if you search coin shows, Disneyana shows and on-line auctions.
Because these coins for the most part, were never on-stage, they are in this author’s opinion, optional to the "complete set". Of course, many advanced collectors will not want to be without these coins as they represent or are mementos of significant milestones in Disneyland history. (The Cast Member and Special Event nickels also include the only elongated coin to mention Annual Passholders to date.)
The three prototype "Penny Art" nickels, which are by definition not "on-stage" coins, could, in this author’s onion, be considered an optional part of this collection. This is good news for the casual collector because of the prototypes’ extreme scarcity and value. To a lesser degree, the same optional status applies to the 1996 error nickel. Of course, Advanced Collectors will most likely want these prototype coins above all others in the set.
Related ParkPennies Guide(s) featuring close up pictures, descriptions and detail comparisons: DN Disneyland Never Neverland
These coins are fun, interesting and Disneyland themed, but, some may not really be Disney ® . So, of course, they are optional to a "complete" set. On the other hand, we’ve included them here... Maybe you’ll want to make them a part of your collection?.. You know, they Wannabe! .
Related ParkPennies Guide(s) featuring close up pictures, descriptions and detail comparisons: DW Disneyland Wannabes
The Disneyland Resort Nickel Collection Profile
(Excluding prototype and error coins)
Subset of Disneyland Park Resort
Relative Collecting Difficulty - Moderate
Relative Cost - Moderate
Closed or Open - Open.
Note - Both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World are known to have off-denomination variations of some pressed coins, often they are nickels. ParkPennies.com hopes to address these coins in a separate article in the future.
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Cast Member and Special Event Elongated Nickels