Press Pennies - again

[BigRedDad]

Out of the blue, DD asked about pressed pennies yesterday. I have not been able to find our collection since we moved. I know we have them, just not sure where. I may find them this weekend. The only problem with it is that all of our pennies to press are in that box. When we started we decided we would only use 1971 pennies, dimes, and quarters. I spent a small fortune on them.

Well, I told her that we are not going to do it on 1971 coins any more. The price has skyrocketed to the extreme. Instead, I told her we will get a bunch of copper pennies, shine them up, and take them. Now, she gets to spend sometime at grandma's next week going through her piggybank, get out pre-1983 pennies, and start to shine them. I have to do a little more research on the best dimes and quarters to use. Even if we decided to get ALL of the coins, it will be a cheap investment on a very fun time.

I am not sure if I can post this link. Since it is specifically Disney, I think it is OK. This website is about the best thing I have found for the pins. It has the map and location, picture of the machine, and pictures of the pressed coins. Makes it very convenient to identify the ones you want or all the places you need to go.

http://ctmgroupinc.com/disney/

 

[BigRedDad]

And if anyone is reading this, do you know if they still have the Agent P mission penny in France?

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

They still have it. Though I have yet to get one. I finally gave up and purchased that design online for about $8.00 or so.
As you are looking for copper pennies. Make sure you focus on pennies that are older than 1982. The 1982 year saw some of them made on 95% copper and some made on zinc copper clad. So for me just to be safe I ignore 1982 and newer, if I'm looking for copper pennies. However, I also use the newer pennies that are 2010 and newer (with shield on back) They seem to press pretty good. Some zinc shows through in some cases still but not as bad as the monument zinc pennies 1982-2008. Also, you can clean any of your dirty pennies with Wright's Copper Cream. You can pick it up in Walmart for around $3.00 or $4.00. It works very well. I like it better than actual coin cleaner. You can use the provided sponge to clean them and I also use a new toothbrush just for this as well for the more hard to remove grime. Once they are cleaned, I would recommend drying them off soon and storing them in ziplock bags. I have noticed in general after you clean pennies if you leave them damp for very long they tend to start to re-tarnish. Usually I do them in batches. I lay the dirty ones out on a paper plate, clean them and lay them out on another napkin/paper towel lined paper plate and dab them dry as I lay them down. Once I get a plate full, I stop cleaning and dry them off very well with another napkin and put them right into a ziplock bag. In past experiences I have waited too long (a few hours) and had to re-clean them. Though cleaning them again goes quicker since the tarnish is not deep.
For my Disney Penny collection, I have all designs from 2015 to present. I also have several from each Disney Park around the world. Currently My collection is over 1,200 coins.

For me I don't get too caught up in the copper vs zinc issue, although I am starting to shift a little bit more towards using just coppers as I find them. For one reason, all of the new automatic machines that have either 8 or 12 designs. They are pre-loaded with pennies that are zinc. The good thing is you do not have to provide your own penny and they do not take quarters. They take bills ($1,00 and $5.00 I think) and credit/debit cards. It is cheaper to just buy all designs in the machine as opposed to buying 1 penny for $1.00. The cost for all 8 designs at $5.00 breaks down to $0.625 per penny. That's still cheaper than the dimes at $0.85 each.

Currently at WDW there are over 725 different designs on Pennies, quarters and dimes. Thre is only one dime machine on property, it is located at Space Mountian gift shop.

If you have more questions let me know.

 

[Baron Von Capybara]

does leaving the pennies in coca-cola still bring the shine back to them ?

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

does leaving the pennies in coca-cola still bring the shine back to them ?

I have not tried that method yet. I have though tried vinegar and salt. I have also tried copper coin cleaner. I have also tried using a pencil eraser mounted to a power drill. All have met with limited results. Of all of them the coin clear worked the best. However, there are some pennies that are just too dirty for these things to clean. I have since changed and only use Wright's Copper Cream. For me it works the best with less manual effort. Plus it polishes as it cleans. I have been using it for a little over 6 months now and love it.
Sometimes with using coin cleaner it would re-deposit these black tarnish spots that were very hard to clean off. The copper cream would just take these away.

Here are a few examples of amusement tokens that I cleaned. Now granted I could have worked longer on them, but they are cleaned very well compared to what they were before. The remaining grime is in scratches, etc.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

Here are two examples of 2015 shield pennies that have been cleaned and then pressed. As you can see the first design pressed well with no zinc showing through. The second design has some zic showing through. It is not cracked with veins. But, it is showing the high press points on the die since the zinc pressed through. As a side note almost all of the new 2017 pennies do this. You can even see those same stress areas on coppers, but since it is all copper it is harder to see.
If you press dirty or non-cleaned zinc pennies, that is when you start to see the cracking and veins in the copper layer with the zinc showing through.

Also, If you want to press outdoor pennies in the rain. Make sure that you go inside somewhere and dry them off and keep them in a ziplock bag. I pressed some at the outdoor Speedway machine and left them in my bag overnight wet and they were so corroded it wasn't even funny. I was surprised at how fast the damage happened. They did clean up pretty good though.

Design 1, a 2015 shield style zinc penny with a good press with no zinc showing through. However, the design is off center a bit. Pressing the design again might give a better press. Each time you press results will vary, even the same exact die design. for me, I pressed this again and had better results with all of the outer beading showing properly.

Design 2, same batch of 2015 shield pennies. You can see that the penny rolled long, which goes along with matching zinc spots that pressed through. This one I pressed again on copper (pre-1982). However, there is no streaking or veins/cracking showing up. this is because it was cleaned first. For me, if I had this penny in my collection and the design was retired I'd be ok with it. But, if I had the chance to go back and press it again in copper I would. ** Also, you can see a nice thumb print on it too. I'd probably clean this again after it was pressed to see if I could remove that so it does not etch into the penny long term.

 

[21stamps]

I used Dawn and water to clean them. It worked pretty well.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

I used Dawn and water to clean them. It worked pretty well.

Yes, back when I first started I did a two step process. I would clean them with dawn and water using a toothbrush. Then I would use the coin cleaner as a secondary cleaning also. Since using the copper cream I have stopped all other cleaning methods.

I find that each penny has its own level of cleaning needed. I have had some pennies in my collection that are fairly clean and go back to 1940's. Then cleaning them with copper cream brings them back to nearly new looking.

For some pennies all they need is a little soap and water. Other might just need a little bit of vinegar and salt. While still others might need more cleaning.

It's neat that there are so many varied methods to cleaning pennies.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

My daughter used this site when she was looking for designs to collect: http://www.presscoins.com/current_designs/?location=Epcot&page=1&limit=50
They show three Agent P designs at EPCOT.

With this machine there are three designs. You can only press two of the designs with your own pennies and quarters. The third design can only be obtained by playing the correct mission on Agent P worldshowcase game. There are multiple missions at France Pavilion. Only one of those random missions will you win the coin. From what I hear the CM does something to the machine that allows it to make that penny design. There is no user button on the front of the machine for that design.
Here's a pic from PennyCollector website.

 

[BigRedDad]

Yes, that is the one. We need to make sure we get the France mission that allows us to get the penny. At least I know it is there. Now I need to find the mission that will allow us to get it.

Thanks everyone for the information. Our journey will be a grand one this trip. If I truly wanted to, I would try to get every one of them. I know it is not going to happen, but the journey will be fun.