As you can see, it's one of those souvenir doubloons from the POTC souvenir shop. This one is stamped, typos included, "OPENING DAYPIRATES OF CARIBEAN" So...was this actually stamped on March 18, 1967? Is there some sort of historical record for these souvenirs? I had no idea how to authenticate it to 1967 when I bought it (and still don't), so I took the reputable dealer's word and went with it and hoping to someday know for sure.
Any help out there from the peanut gallery? Does this look like the ones sold in 1967? Were these ever altered and revised over the years? If so, what do they look like now?
4 comments:
Gosh, I don't know how this could be authenticated... I have several of these that I bought for myself when I was a kid, and as far as I can tell, they look identical except for the added words. But maybe there's somebody out there who knows better! I hope it IS from opening day!!
I have many of these dating from 1975 through 1994. The are all identical from what I can tell.
The machine it came from was in the old Pirates Arcade, and you could stamp whatever you felt like into your very own doubloon. I think it cost 25 cents originaly but was about a buck when the machine disappeared out of the then Pieces of Eight store in the mid 90's.
You had to be careful that you paid attention to the number of characters you had already used and also to the spacing, or you got what you have: typos and run-on words. I've got a few souvenir Pieces like that myself; I smile now when I see them, and can usually remember (with help from my inscription of course), what in general was up in my world when I took the time to make it.
The only surviving relic from the original arcade that's still in Disneyland is the Fortune Red machine, which is now in an alcove off of the nearby courtyard. He wasn't working when I last visited in December. Will check again tomorrow when I return to Disneyland...
Thanks for sharing!
I've had one of these doubloons on my keychain ever since getting my license ten years ago. It was made in 1997 and except for the message is identical, down to the Circle C WDP! I doubt there's any way to know for sure about this, unless Disney produced a fair number to hand out to the press.
I also remember that machine and am so sorry to hear its no longer there. Much cooler than the penny presses all over the parks today. I am a certifiewd appraiser and my educated guess would be that a very sly {smarter than I Hahaha} had the bright idea to do this maybe but unlkikely on openeing day. More likely much later to sell as a earlier piece of memorobilia from a historic date. What dod you pay for it ? that would be a good indicator of which ever may be true. I think had Disneyland produced them there would not have been the typos. Took a little smart figuring to make the most out of the allotted spaces available. I would still place a more significant value on it than the norm people still have on thier key chains today. Seems like the most popular thing to imprint was names and birthdays. Maybe boy or girlfriends in the teen years. Very cool and I think we should petition that the machine be restored and put back into service in the park. I would pay $3.00 for the chance to make my own custom dubloon today.
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