Pressed Pennies - Disneyland, Universal Studios, Magic Mountain, Knott's Berry Farm & More!

On July 4th of last year, I did a Bicentennial Post and included a picture of a souvenir pressed penny. That inspired me to look for the other pressed pennies that I have acquired over the years. Well, I found all of them (there aren't that many....only eight!), and now they have somehow led to a larger post on the subject, than I had originally intended:

Pressed Pennies are a relatively inexpensive souvenir and the machines that create them can be found at many tourist attractions and landmarks around the world. According to a Los Angeles Times article that I'm including at the end of this post, pressed coins go back more than 100 years to Vienna, Austria. They were first introduced here in the U.S., at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.

The first two pressed pennies that I acquired were from a 1976 trip to Universal Studios. These were both made by machines that were operated by hand. You would hand an attendant your coins (the penny, plus the price of the pressing) and they would insert the penny into a tall machine with a large crank. They themselves, would turn the crank and out would come your souvenir coin.

The Jaws attraction from the Universal Studios Tour in California had just opened in April of 1976.

I'm including this "Jaws" photo that my dad took during a 1985 visit to Universal Studios. I did not go on that trip, so I have no idea where this photo op was located. I'm also a bit confused as to why it was there. Jaws 3-D had been released in 1983 and Jaws: The Revenge wasn't going to be come out until 1987. Was this just left over from the 1983 film's release?

This Frankenstein penny is from the same 1976 Universal Studios trip as my "Jaws" penny.

The postcard below, was purchased during an earlier visit. The girl on the left looks like she could have been friends with Marcia ("Oh, my nose!") or Jan ("Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!") Brady.

I took this pic of Frankenstein during a 1979 trip to Universal while seated on one of the "Glamour Trams" at the beginning of the studio tour. Frankenstein could often be seen walking among the parked trams trying to scare guests.

My next penny is from Knott's. I must say that I don't think the design on this one is the greatest. They tried to include two iconic images, the old prospector panning for gold and the Calico Railroad.

This vintage postcard shows a similar image of a prospector.

Here's another Knott's Penny. This one commemorates Knott's 1991 Halloween Haunt. Some of the older Halloween Haunt penny machines can actually still be found in the park today.

The vampire design was used on other Haunt merchandise that year, such as this T-shirt. (Photo courtesy of Knott's Illustrated on Facebook....thank you!!!)

I acquired this next penny at Ports O' Call Village in San Pedro back in the 1970's. My grandparents lived in Torrance back then and they would often take my brother and me over to Ports O' Call, to walk around and look in the shops.

I'm kind of surprised that they didn't put this iconic image of the fisherman on the penny. The description on the back of this vintage postcard reads, "This bronze statue is dedicated to the Fisherman...for his harpoon, hook and net have long harvested the endless sea to grace the tables of America. His sturdy ships and useful catches have always found shelter and market at The Port of Los Angeles."

Here's a photo from Ports O' Call that my brother took during one of our childhood visits.

My next souvenir penny is from Magic Mountain and depicts Shock Wave, a stand-up rollercoaster that was only in the park from 1986-1988. The piece of land that it sat on has changed quite a bit over the years. Other attractions that came and went in that same spot were the Sarajevo Bobsleds, Psyclone, and Apocalypse (originally Terminator Salvation - The Ride).

This Magic Mountain map from 1988 shows the former location of Shockwave.

I don't have any personal photos of Shockwave, but here is professional video footage of Shockwave.....just in case anyone is interested.



This is my newest pressed penny. It's from an early 1990's visit to Seattle, Washington. The Space Needle & Olympic Mountains are depicted in the design.

I purchased this postcard during the same visit. The Olympic Mountains can be seen off in the distance. The area immediately surrounding the Space Needle was originally the location of the 1962 World's Fair. Today the area is called Seattle Center, but several of the buildings and landmarks from the fair are still standing.

Believe it or not, I don't own one single pressed penny from a Disney park.....not even from the Tokyo Disney parks. In Anaheim, there are more than 40 different machines spread out within the parks, hotels, and Downtown Disney. This pamphlet lists the locations of all the machines including those with special limited "60th Anniversary" designs.

So they are using Henry and Sammy from Country Bear Jamboree to represent Critter Country? Weird! Why don't they just put the show back where it belongs!

Again, I haven't purchased any of these. But there are quite a few of the special "60th Anniversary" designs that I do like because of the vintage images that are used. If you look closely, you will see that the artwork for some of these has been taken directly from their respective Disneyland attraction posters (specifically, the PeopleMover, Submarine Voyage, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Columbia Sailing Ship).

This Fantasyland machine makes "pressed quarters".

Most of the pressed coin machines have a generic look such as the one below.

The machine inside the Adventureland Bazaar appears to be the only one that is themed to the "land" that it's located in. It has coin pressers on three different sides of it, with nine different designs altogether.

The top of the machine features an elephant that lifts it's arms up in the air and then presses down while a loud stomping (or would that be stamping?) sound is heard.

These are the three "60th Anniversary" designs representing Adventureland.

Seasonal designs are even available at times throughout the year. This holiday "pressed nickel" machine was located at the exit to Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.

Here's a close-up of the inner workings of one of the machines. The coin travels down that clear diagonal slot and then falls between two rollers, which then rotate and imprint a design onto the coin while "elongating" it at the same time.

By the way, all of the special "60th" pennies are still available in the park today, even though the 60th anniversary was technically last year.

And in case you just can't get enough of pressed pennies.....here is that Los Angeles Times article that I mentioned. This is from June 2015.

Universal Studios: Part 2 - Upper Lot

It's time now to go back to Universal Studios Hollywood and take a look at their "Upper Lot." To see my recent post on the "Lower Lot," click here.

The Simpsons ride opened at Universal in 2008 and replaced the Back To The Future attraction. A souvenir store resembling the Kwik-E-Mart from the series sits next door to the attraction and the Simpsons family can often be found greeting guests nearby.

Moe's Tavern and the comic book store from the series are also a part of the shop's facade.

This is the show building for the Simpsons ride. Guests enter the queue through the open mouth of Krusty The Clown.

Itchy and Scratchy make sure that smaller guests are tall enough to ride.

Some attraction posters hang in the queue advertising rides and shows that can be found in Krusty's fictional amusement park, "Krustyland."

A large map of Krustyland hangs on the wall.

I wish I had gotten a sharper picture of the map and the listing of attractions. Next time!

Another shot from the queue.....

And a shot of the back of one of the ride vehicles.

The Simpsons attraction is a simulator ride, similar to the Back To The Future attraction that it replaced. I must say, that as much as I liked the "Back To The Future" movies, I was NOT a fan of the ride. For me it was a very rough ride and the projected images always seemed too dark and blurry. Supposedly, new hydraulics and a new projection system were installed for the Simpsons ride....personally, I thought the new attraction was a huge improvement over it's predecessor. Without giving too much away, I will just mention that guests get to go on simulated versions of several of the rides at "Krustyland" including the Tooth Chipper Roller Coaster which is condemned and has been slated for demolition. Note Sideshow Bob standing on the wrecking ball platform in the picture below.

The ride loads and unloads at several different levels, but I had never been sent down to the lowest loading area. When walking up the exit ramp, I was very surprised to see an open view underneath the foundation of the building.

There is a reason I'm including these pics in my post. The Back To The Future ride was built on the former location of "The Battle of Gallactica" show that visitors used to see during the tram tour, but that attraction had been built on the same hillside as the earlier "Rockslide" attraction. I guess I just got excited when I saw that the hill, and even the road itself aren't entirely covered over with the show building. And if I close my eyes, I can almost see those rocks from my childhood tumbling down that hill towards a Glamor Tram or hear the Cylon at the base of the hill shouting, "Halt, foolish humans!"

The picture above is from an old souvenir booklet and shows the Rockslide. And here's a photo that I took when I was about 15 years old, of the old Battlestar Gallactica setup. The large spaceship that the tram would drive through can be seen on the right.

And while we are taking a trip back in time, here is another picture that I took during that same visit. This shark was created using the same molds that were used to create the shark for the movie Jaws.

At some point, this shark was removed and replaced with the current one seen below.

Everything is calm and peaceful over at Amity Island!

This seating area is located just next door. Something about it felt very familiar. It didn't take long before I realized this was the area that used to display the miniature submarine and battleship and also the "rain" effect.

I've posted these next two shots previously. The first one is from an old souvenir guide and shows what the area looked like before it was filled in with concrete.

And this shot was taken by dad in 1967.

Going back to current day, we can see that they may have gotten rid of the miniature submarine and battleship, but they did leave the rain effect.

They just reduced the pool of water below.

I mean REALLY reduced it! :-(

And now for all you baseball fans out there, we have some original seats from Dodger Stadium.

Original from 1974 to 2005, that is.

Shrek has his own attraction at Universal too....."Shrek 4-D" (presented in OgreVision).

"Shrek 4-D" is a 3-D movie with in-theater special effects. In my opinion, it is far better than Disney's "Honey I Shrunk The Audience" or "Muppet Vision 3-D."

I like the artwork on these posters. They explain Shrek's backstory and let the audience know that Lord Farquaad has returned, but in ghost form.

Wanted posters for Pinocchio and the Three Little Pigs hang in the queue area. These four characters are also featured in a very clever pre-show. Sorry, no pictures were allowed once inside the building!

Universal has a House of Horrors that rivals any Halloween maze. I was surprised at how long it was. It takes guests through two different levels of horror movie scenes including the Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, Psycho and Child's Play with "Chucky." A portion of this attraction uses space formerly occupied by the old Victoria Station restaurant.

In addition to the Simpsons, guests can also meet The Lorax........

SpongeBob SquarePants....

Curious George.....

.....and Marilyn Monroe. Or is that Katherine McPhee? Sorry, but I'm totally addicted to Smash!

This poster was hanging in the stairwell of the Universal parking structure. I didn't even know that Universal and NBC had merged until it was mentioned on the Tram Tour. Hey, looky there in the lower right corner.....it's the Supreme Leader from Captain EO!

Speaking of Marilyn Monroe, this sculpture made from jelly beans can be found at Universal City Walk.

She's located inside the "It's Sugar" candy shop.

I will be doing a separate post focusing just on the Universal Studios Tram Tour, so please stay tuned!