DN0007 Pirates of the
Caribbean
prototype
pressed penny
DN0012 Main Street USA
Locomotive prototype
pressed penny.
The DN0019
"Penny Art
Mickey"
The DN0020
"Penny Art
40th"
The DN0021
"Penny Art
Minnie"
The DN0024
"UBOC Prototype"
The DN0025
"UBOC Prototype"
The DN0026
"UBOC Prototype"
The DN0027
"UBOC Prototype"
Original DN0002 Straw Hat Mickey Mouse image courtesy of The N. Wooten Collection
All other images courtesy of A. & R. Hoff, the ParkPennies folks.
Above are some of my favorite, rarely seen, scarce, hard to find, "prototype" or "pattern" coins. They represent some of the most valuable coins from the Disneyland Resorts. Starting at the top row from left to right, The DN0001, "Mickey Mouse Rays", machine made by Centek Inc. Next, the very well known DN0002, "Straw Hat Mickey" or "Nifty Nineties Mickey", machine made by The Cimeter Group. Next, the very scarce DN0003, "Dated Straw Hat Mickey" or "Dated Nifty Nineties Mickey", machine also made by The Cimeter Group, completes the top row. The second row offers the DN0014, "Fantasmic!", DN0007 Pirates of the
Caribbean, and the DN0012 Main Street USA
Locomotive all by Eurolink Inc. The third row has a few favorites, The "Penny Art" nickels, DN0019, DN0020 and DN0021machine also by Eurolink Inc. The forth and fifth row showcase The Union Bank of California prototype pressed coin set, DN0024, DN0025, DN0026 and DN0027.
(ParkPennies Reference Guide details for these coins may be viewed at the bottom of this page.)
Many Disneyana fans will see these coins as familiar in design to coins seen more often. However, side by side elongated coin comparisons reveal each is slightly different to their close cousins. For example, as you can see, the DN0001 looks a lot like a DL0001 also like a DL0005 or DL0007. yet it is has a grip bar to the right rather than the left and has an outlined image of Mickey Mouse etc. The DN0019-21 coins look much like other nickels yet their images (devices) are much smaller or "penny sized" and The Union Bank of California prototype set by itself, looks much like the on-stage Union Bank of California set. If of interest, you may view a close up comparison.
Scarce Elongated Coins
Keep the Hobby Challenging!
On this page, we have gathered a sample of some legendary Disneyland elongated coins. Many collectors feel they are among the scarcest and / or most valuable of all Disney elongated coins. We hope new as well as longtime collectors will enjoy viewing coins that are found only in a very few of the top Disney "pressed penny" collections. More can be viewed via our Disneyland Prototype Pressed Coins Guide.
The elongated coins pictured above are ten of the most talked about and sought after examples of Disney pressed coins known to us. Many of them were not discovered by "The Collecting World" or listed in our collection guides until years after they were first pressed. Since discovery, most all of these coins have proven themselves to be exceedingly hard to find and their market values generally confirm their scarcity. (We prefer to use the word scarce rather than rare when the total number of coins pressed is unknown.) Selling prices for some of these coins have exceeded a thousand dollars, with at least one exceeding three thousand dollars. For for a selection of other, less costly, easier to find Disneyland elongated coin collection sets, please visit the ParkPennies Collecting Ideas Index.
The images offered represent the shared efforts of many collectors over more than 20 years of Disneyland elongated coin hunting. Some of the contributing collectors are noted in the coin descriptions and or the Acknowledgments Page. We are indebted to the fellow collectors that have contributed their "discoveries" to this reference guide and invite anyone with a coin not already listed to contact us.
The folks here at ParkPennies, as you may know, have collected Disney elongated coins since about 1988 and participated in or negotiated in the pressed penny market since around 1993, when the internet first starting bringing collectors together in ever increasing numbers. Over the years, we have observed and participated in on-line auctions, private sales and kept price histories of sales we felt were significant. Because of this experience, occasionally, we are asked by coin dealers or collectors for auction value estimates or Disney elongated coin collection evaluations. These activities and observations are the basis of this article and the opinions stated. We hope you will enjoy our efforts and share this web site with other collectors and Disney fans.
Many Disneyland ® coins look alike and the small differences in these coins can also make for very different values. As longtime collectors have noticed, sometimes coins that look much alike can have sale or auction prices thousands of dollars different. I can see the jaws of new collectors dropping as they read that "thousands of dollars different". But, don’t be discouraged. Trading and sales of spare coins can help keep the cost of a collection affordable. Not to mention, as in most all collectibles, knowing the small differences that make the difference between ordinary and extra ordinary is a big advantage when you buy, sale or trade.
For your convenience in attributing similar coins, this web site offers the extensive ParkPennies.com Disneyland elongated coin guides, linked at the top of most pages, and a page of elongated coin variations with links to expanded detail pages. Together, they can help in identifying the small differences of similar Disneyland coins. Also, per your requests, we have added a frame option at the top right corner of most pages. With that option, three stationary, size-adjustable, adjacent windows or "frames" will hold three coins of your choice side by side for more accurate evaluation. You may click a coin in the first window, go to another catalog, click another coin in window two etc. Compare them side by side, print them or save their images to your desktop.
Disneyland "Penny Art" pressed nickels, an interesting, but, hard to find set. Interviews with Cast Members and related research by Robert Hoff of ParkPennies.com support the
long held belief that these "Penny Art" dies were engraved as "penny-sized" coin dies in error. A Cast Member that was close to this project at the time, in the mid 1990s, stated that when these dies arrived they were tested in a machine set up for the first time to "intensionally" press nickels. :-) However, the smaller than expected penny-sized die images left an unacceptable blank space
at the end of the rolled coin. So, corrected, dies with larger images were ordered before the
machine was placed on-stage.
The machine when placed onstage became the first Disney coin press in world to press nickels.
Per the best information available to us to date in 2015, less than a dozen "penny art" sets are believed to be in the hands of collectors. Reports of incomplete sets have been made and we do not believe an equal number of each coin in this set of three pressed nickels were made. Examples are also known
to exist on non-native or off-denomination coins such as cents.
Die status is unknown.
Related: Our scarce or rare Disneyland pressed pennies and elongated coins page.
The Mickey Mouse "Pressed Penny Art" Nickel
DN0019 Top Hat Mickey Penny Art
prototype vertical pressed nickel. Mickey, full length,
in tux with top hat & cane, "e" for Eurolink Design Corporation replaces the dot nearest the center of the gripper slot, DISNEYLAND. Penny-sized image. Similar to the DL0058, DL0058a and DN0019P. Die believed to have been engraved in early 1995.No stampbacked examples known. (No Disney elongated coins pressed before 2004 are known to have stampbacks.) Open prototype elongated coin image in
frame or window #123or Giant Comparison image, or our comparison page. DN0019P Top Hat Mickey
Penny Art
prototype vertical pressed penny. Mickey, full length, in tux with top hat & cane, "e" for Eurolink Design Corporation replaces the dot nearest the center of the gripper slot, DISNEYLAND. Penny-sized image. No stampbacked examples known. (No Disney elongated coins pressed before 2004 are known to have stampbacks.)
This is an example of a scarce off-denomination or cent variation of the DN0019. It was pressed on the incorrectly cut DN0019 penny-sized nickel die. See also DN0019, DL0058 and DL0058a.
Reported by and original image courtesy of The Mark Brown Collection. Open larger
The 40 Years of Adventure "Pressed Penny Art" Nickel
DN0021 Minnie & Purse Penny Art prototype pressed nickel. Vertical pressed coin. Minnie, full length with purse, "e" for Eurolink Design Corporation replaces the dot nearest the center of the gripper slot, DISNEYLAND. Penny-sized image. Similar to the DL0060,DL0060a and DN0021P. Die believed to have been engraved in early1995. No stampbacked examples known. (No Disney elongated coins pressed before 2004 are known to have stampbacks.) Open larger prototype elongated coin image in
frame or window #123 or Giant Comparison image, or our comparison page. DN0021P Minnie & Purse Penny Art prototype pressed penny. Vertical pressed coin. Minnie, full length with purse, "e" for Eurolink Design Corporation replaces the dot nearest the center of the gripper slot, DISNEYLAND. Penny-sized image. No stampbacked examples known. (No Disney elongated coins pressed before 2004 are known to have stampbacks.)
This is an example of a scarce off-denomination or cent variation of the DN0021. It was pressed by the incorrectly cut DN0021 penny-sized nickel die. See also DN0021, DL0060 and DL0060a.
Reported by and original image courtesy of The Mark Brown Collection.
The UNION BANK OF CALIFORNIA,
UBOC Pressed Penny Prototypes
The Union Bank of California pressed penny prototype set of coins were all pressed on a single four image die shaft. Each has a train image that is
difficult to recognize. It did not even come close to meeting the high standards of the penny press company that was commissioned to engrave the dies and manufacture the machine. So, replacement dies DL0153-DL0156 were engraved which reduced the focal image to
just the locomotive and tender while increasing the image size.
The original ring die of four images, used to press the prototype set, was reported and later confirmed destroyed by the engraver / owner as well as a trusted source.
The finished hand crank penny press machine, with the new, corrected dies held a place of honor in the UBOC Bank, Main Street, Disneyland for about two years where UBOC pennies could be pressed for free(!) Related: Our scarce or rare Disneyland pressed pennies and elongated coins page.
LEFT: Side by
side comparison of the scarce DN0024 and common DL00153. (Click the thumbnail for a larger image.) As you can see there are many small details that separate these two coin types. Easiest to for me to identify is the banner at the bottom of the design that breaks through the beaded border on the Disneyland DL variety and stops short of the border on the prototype DN variety. All UBOC elongated pennies have no examples with stampbacks are known.
RIGHT: View
DL0153 - DL0156 dot placement detail. (Same as DN0024-DN0027)
The four coins vended by this four die hand crank penny press were all nearly identical, with the exception of an enlarged dot that was placed differently, sequentially, on each coin in the set. Click the image above to open a larger image with greater detail. (Yes, a small detail for some, a giant detail for ParkPennies.com. :-)
DN0001 Mickey Rays /
Mickey Sunburst The First Disney elongated coin design.
DN0025 Union Bank of California "UBOC" prototype pressed coin.
