In April 2015 the first preloaded 12-die zinc penny machine appeared at In Character at Hollywood Studios. In May 2015 the first preloaded 8-die zinc penny machine appeared and more of these new types of machines slowly appeared with some of them replacing existing three and four die machines where you previously could use your own penny instead of the machine providing the penny. Each of these new types of machines also accepted credit cards and each design was $1.00 or $5.00 for a complete 8-die machine set or $10.00 for a completed 12-die machine set.
Starting in May 2019 the first preloaded 4-die hand crank penny machine appeared with two of them being placed on-stage at Main Street Railroad Station at Magic Kingdom. That same month the Tomorrowland Speedway machine was converted from being able to use your own penny and using two quarters to press it with a design you selected to a preloaded zinc penny machine that cost $1.00 for each design. All existing 4-die machines were converted to preloaded zinc penny machines prior to Disney World shutting down in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Disney World reopened in July 2020 and in September 2020 the 3-die machine at the Newsstand at Magic Kingdom was the first machine of this type to be converted to a preloaded zinc penny machine that also cost $1.00 for each design. These conversions have been continuing and so far, all of the places that are open at Disney World that have pressed penny machines at Magic Kingdom, Disney Springs and Hollywood Studios have all been converted and now provide the penny and cost $1.00 for each design. There is no discount to get all the designs in the three or four die penny machines but you do get the biggest discount by getting all the designs from an 8-die machine. When comparing the cost of getting a complete 8-die machine set at $5.00 it is only $1.00 more than getting a complete set from a 4-die machine.
We expect these conversions to continue at Disney World until all of the machines have either been converted or replaced.
In comparing the over 900 pressed coin designs that are currently available at Disney World approximately 70% of the designs are only available from preloaded zinc penny machines. Only about 30% of designs can still be pressed using your own preferable copper penny at a cost of $0.51 or a quarter at $1.25. We also do not know what will become of the few pressed quarter machines that are on property. There was one pressed dime machine on property but it was converted to a pressed penny machine.
