My favorite Souvenir - Pressed Pennies

My favorite Disney World souvenirs are pressed pennies. I've been a pressed penny fanatic for years, collecting them wherever I go. At Disney World, there are hundreds of pressed penny designs available, both in the parks and the hotels that make up the resort. Every time I go to Disney World, I make sure to bring quarters and pennies to feed my habit. I've tried several different ways of containing the coins in an attempt to make it quicker at the machines. My favorite method is to use M&M minis tubes. They are the perfect size to hold $12 in quarters, although the longer tubes will hold more. I usually carry two tubes, one with quarters and one with pennies. I always go to the bank to pick up at least one roll of quarters and one roll of pennies. I try to get a new roll of pennies, both because they are shinier and because I can then smash 2010 pennies in 2010. For kids, I decorate the M&M tubes with Disney stickers. After the pennies have been pressed, I put them into a small coin purse that I carry just to keep track of my pressed pennies. There are several websites out there that keep track of what penny designs are available and they update them frequently. My favorite penny site is Press Coins. They have great checklists for all of the pressed coin machines. Now that I've collected all of the pennies from certain machines, I carry a print out showing where the machines are and which designs are available in each machine. I check off the ones that I have to avoid duplication. It seems kind of silly, but I really only want one of each penny. I use the pennies in my scrapbooks, just like you would stickers. Last Christmas, I made ornaments using pressed pennies. I used a Mickey fried egg mold and a recipe for cinnamon applesauce ornaments, using a straw to poke a hole near the top center. After the ornaments dried, I glued a pressed penny to the front of each ornament. I glued a sticker to the back with the year and name of the person I was giving the ornament to. Each ornament has a pressed penny that represents the person I was giving it to. For instance, my niece loves all things French, so hers has a penny from the France Pavilion at EPCOT. I love pressed pennies, and they are one of the most inexpensive souvenirs available at Disney World. And if you save a few pennies, you have more to press!