Planning on collecting Pressed Pennies? Here's a fun project for the kids...

[Trixiezzz]

This was a fun project that my kids loved doing to get ready for our upcoming WDW trip: Find and shine pennies!

Find all-copper pennies~
Go through your change jars and let them hunt all pennies that are dated before 1982. These are 100% copper and make the best flattened pennies. (The newer pennies have zinc in them and it makes a gray streak when flattened.)

Set out 3 plastic bowls:

1st bowl: with about 1/4 cup of ketchup.
Let the kids soak the pennies in ketchup for a few minutes.
Completely kid safe and it works. It's a fun & messy project and they won't believe it will shine a penny. Watch their faces when they reallize it IS working.

2nd bowl: with some plain baking soda.
Dip the ketchupy penny in and rub between fingers. This gets the remaining tarnish off and makes an icky paste that they'll love squishing in their fingers.

3rd bowl: water.
Drop them in to wash all the ketchup and baking soda off, and dry on a clean towel.


Another poster suggested collecting empty film cannisters or M&M "Mini" tubes for carrying your un-flattened pennies: putting 1 penny together with 2 quarters so that the correct change will always be handy for the machine.

All I can say is that my kids had a blast doing this project!

 

[toystoryduo]

What a great idea!!! Thanks

 

[Cindy B]

Vinegar also works too. I've given the pennies a vinegar bath.

 

[Belle0101]

I give ours a coca-cola bath. They come out shiny but I hate to think about what it does to the stomach.


A word of warning if you put the pennies in the M & M tubes. We had 2 tubes of coins in a carry-on and they looked suspicious. You really don't want to have to package them back up in the security line.

Luckily we had a really nice officer and he didn't completely dump out both tubes.

Still it's a good idea and it worked out great in the parks to have them in tubes.

 

[ksoehrlein]

Thanks for the tip, Trixiezzz! We lost DD's pressed penny book at Epcot last August, but I think she'll want to try and build up a collection again. And this time, at least she can have all bright and shiny pennies instead of "whatever's in mommy's purse at the time" pennies like in her last book.

 

[Good Deeds]

We just tried the ketchup and baking soda to clean off our "old pennies". I had been collecting new ones to use...so glad I read this tip on the boards...

The pennies came out GREAT!! They look so good and my kids loved cleaning them...When my husband got home they raced to the door to tell him all about it! His comment: "Mom must have been on the computer again!!"

I learn sooooo much on these boards!! THANKS !!

 

[pplasky]

My kids love pressing those pennies. I never thought of cleaning the pennies ahead of time. Thanks for the tip.

 

[ellyn2000]

Well, I now know what I'll be doing this weekend. Thanks for the tip!

 

[kfeuer]

Thanks for the tip! My pennies are soaking in ketchup right now

My MIL loves doing the pressed pennies, but was always digging in her purse for change on the last trip. I'm going to give her a tube with the pennies and quarters all ready to go for our upcoming trip. This will be a neat "present" for her. I'm trying to do everything I can think of to make this next trip special for her...it's going to be hard on her because she's a fellow Disney addict who's been to the parks a bunch of times, but it'll be her first trip to DW without DH's dad (he passed away in April)

 

[Bakerone]

My youngest loves the pressed pennies. We found a booklet to keep them in at one of the National Parks. I'll be sure to pack hers for this trip too.

 

[Bakerone]

FYI-Since I'm a science teacher I do this in class with my kids. We use vinegar and sometimes lemon juice. You could make this a science project and inquire what substances are acids in your home. Safety first. Also try adding a pinch of salt to your vinegar!

 

[ennazus]

Thanks for ideas! We've used film canisters to hold our coins before they are pressed.

Here's a cool site: http://www.liss.olm.net/ec/disney/

 

[alicenwonder99]

I have 2 questions:

1. Where can you find the book to put all the pressed pennies in? I know I read somewhere that you can buy one on Main Street...I just can't remember where it was.

2. There seems to be too many of the penny machines to try to do all of them in a trip. How do you decide how many you will do? I have 4 children. I'm sure the older ones won't want to do this, but the little ones will. How many do you decide to do beforehand. Paying 51 cents a shot (2 kids = $1.02) can get expensive fast. I was thinking doing 10 for each child. How many slots does the book hold?

Thanks for the cleaning tip. I'm going to go through our penny jar now and pull the old ones.

Mary

 

[juliegirl]

Mary
You don't say how old your kids are, but my last trip in April, my 15 yr old niece was still pressing pennies!

The books hold about 25 pennies and 6 quarters (yes they have pressed quarter machines too). Haven't counted, but I think that is about right. You can find them in just about every gift shop for $6.

I brought 2 rolls of quarters on our last trip, one for DD to press pennies and one for tolls, laundry, etc. 10 each seems about right. Word of warning, most machines offer three choices - you might want to tell your kids upfront, one choice per machine. And sometimes two machines right next to each other Maybe they could each pick a character or two to focus on collecting and then combined they would have a wider variety (if they are into sharing at all)

With almost two months to go to your trip, I would find ways for your kids to 'earn' their quarters.

If you go to FW, be sure to try the barrel seat foot massagers across from Trails End, these were a huge hit on our last vacation and I think where DD 'spent' most of her quarters.

Have fun, wish I had a trip in the works!

 

[alicenwonder99]

Thanks Julie,

My children are 17, 13, 6 year old girls, 4 year old boy.

I think the teenaged girls would rather have $10 extra to spend on something else.

I really like the idea of focusing on only a certain character. Do they have just Princess ones? I could see my 6 year old dd wanting that. I'm not sure what my ds would want. He's really into Power Rangers, but I don't think the parks have anything Power Rangers yet. Do you have any suggestions?

We are staying at the FW cabins. I'll have to be on the look out for the foot massager (for myself)...lol.

Thanks for the tips.

Mary

 

[Bakerone]

I found my kids book at a National Park. If there is one near you, and there should be you can find penny books there. Of course a WDW book would be a good gift for my DD since we are going at Christmas time for Christmas. I also liked the idea of separating out .51 in canisters. I may buy a roll of new pennies as a gift too.


Are there penny presses for each character at many locations? We weren't doing this last time we where at WDW. What characters? At Epcot do they have one for each country? (I also teach World Geography!)