The Main Street Confectionery store closed March 29, 2021 for refurbishment and reopened September 28, 2021. When the store reopened, we were expecting the 8-die machine that was located in this store to be available or to be available shortly which did not happen.

The machine that was located in this store has finally been placed back on-stage and is currently available again.

The 50th Anniversary Mickey die in a machine at Disney Springs Pin Traders developed a bad crack in it earlier this month that was causing the bottom portion of the penny to be deformed when pressing. With the 50th Anniversary nearing the end we were not expecting a new die to be made with the same design but we noticed that this was done by February 15.

With the way dies are now being made it's almost impossible to see any differences between the two design variations. From examining several coins pressed from the new die it appears that the wording on the bottom is of lower quality than the first die.

Below is a picture with the first variation, a penny pressed with the cracked die and the die replacement. The next images are a closeup of the bottom wording produced from the two different dies. Looking at the quality of the wording from the bottom picture not only is it of lower quality but it also appears to be sort of double die.

The Stage 1 Company Store at Hollywood Studios has been closed since Disney World shutdown for Covid-19. Inside this store was a 3-die machine that contained designs with Kermit, Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy from The Muppets. This machine has been off-stage since the store closed. The Stage 1 Company Store is still closed but the 3-die machine has been converted to a $1.00 preloaded penny machine and has been placed back on-stage at PizzeRizzo. The machine is now located near the door that exits to the outside eating area for PizzeRizzo.

For all the medallion collectors we thought we would post about a new medallion machine at Magic Kingdom. This new machine is located on the upper floor of the Main Street Railroad Station. These four new Walt Disney World Railroad medallions not only have a different design on the obverse but also has a different design for each medallion on the reverse. One other thing to note is that there is a price increase. The price on this new machine is $6.00 for one medallion or $20.00 for four medallions.