The Disney Dollar: Its History and Investment Success

Tom DRC who came to Disneyland all the way from Pennsylvania to buy over two thousand dollars worth of Disney Dollars well I felt they'd be valuable as a collector's item someday and I wanted to save half for my son and I and the rest will probably sell someday down the road in 1987 Disney Dollars created a frenzy amongst Disney fans and collectors today the demand for Disney Dollars are growing as its value as a collector's item keeps rising and the desire for Mickey Mouse inspired souvenirs and items keeps fans polarized for more what is the Disney dollar how did it come to be given its popularity is it a worthwhile investment and percentage of your retirement portfolio in this video I'm gonna give a complete rundown of the famous and now defunct Disney dollar [Music] s the Mickey Mouse ascendants after Steamboat Willie took the nation by storm in the late 20s and 30s Walt Disney's mystical creation induced a craze in which everybody wanted any toy book or souvenir with Mickey Mouse's face on it 1929 saw the start of the very first Mickey Mouse Club an event where children all across the country could attend their local theater engage in years led by cheerleaders and partake in an on-stage talent show by 1935 the show had spread to more than 800 theaters across the country with more than one million members The Mickey Mouse Club was larger than the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts combined in 1933 there was a new Innovative way to promote the Mickey brand with ice cream the Mickey Mouse cone staller was introduced and members could redeem them at their local Club to receive a Mickey Mouse cone 54 years later a new Mickey Mouse craze was introduced with the inauguration of the Disney dollar a new method of payment for Disney fans to purchase toys books and souvenirs across the Disney parks stores and cruises at this time the Disney brand had boomed fans were tied to the Nostalgia and charm of the company with Mickey Mouse at the Forefront and fans were ready to Shell out their cash for a new form of currency with their favorite Disney character [Music] just about every country has its own form of currency why not Disneyland so beginning May 5th the California theme park will introduce Disney Dollars the official currency of Disneyland for its induction in 1987 Jacqueline quists a Disney Pioneer and Mr Disneyland himself came up with the idea of the Disney dollar there's actually conflicting reports on who actually came up with the idea of the Disney dollar some say that Harry Bryce a Main Street silhouette cutter came up with the idea after visiting a Disney Anna convention he saw that people go crazy for Mickey and will buy anything with his image however many give credit to jack for the idea and execution of the dollar Disneyland has long considered its own Nation said Jack Lindquist Disney's Executive Vice President of marketing and entertainment we have our own City Hall our own fire department and submarine Fleet and if you count our guests and cast members a population in the millions and keeping with that theme it seemed natural to create our own currency initially momentum for the idea started off slow when first introduced however Jack was a well-respected member within a Disneyland Circle and eventually earned his own honorary mayor glass window on Main Street Jack and the marketing department would eventually come up with the idea that it would be ideal to place the big cheese himself Mickey Mouse on a one dollar bill once again the big mouse himself would be placed on currency once more a move to charge Disney fans the purchasing the Disney monetary script as a souvenir on May 5th 1987 the Disney dollar was finally introduced with quite the Fanfare accompanied by an armored truck Scrooge McDuck A fitting treasure for the Disney Dollars would make the initial drop off thus opening the exchange for Disneyland guests there couldn't be a more perfect Disney character to take on the role of treasurer 1.95 that's right gee he sure knows his money each dollar is signed by the treasurer himself accompanied by Tinkerbell to decide on every dollar like real currency the dollars each have their own serial numbers printed on by a steel and taglio Engraving process on ride cotton stock it's just like handling any other kind of real currency and it of course has a value associated with it to keep up with Disney standards it was the very first time Four Color currency had been used in the United States also don't bother printing your own Disney Dollars while trying to bring down the mouse each dollar has its own anti-counterfeiting measures which includes confetti on the bills and subtle watermarks the Disney Dollars were introduced to Disney World later that same year on October 2nd with the arrival of Treasurer Scrooge McDuck the popularity of the dollar was booming and fans were clamoring to the idea not as the dollar is a form of currency but as a fun souvenir that's worth holding on to the Bison Michigan what's money that's made just talk but it's uh fun do it dad there's a reason why Disney wants to add a fun factor of source when it comes to spending your own money at their parks on retail stores an example of this was when Disneyland used to use their AE ticket books you are less inclined to think about the value of what you were riding when it was a ticket much like a Disney Dollar on top of that there's a huge value in the dollar as a souvenir and advertisement Jack Lindquist said if millions of people keep Disney Dollars it's a constant reminder a constant advertisement to come back to Disney World we also think it's the best media we've ever come up with for gift giving while the idea of Disney as a nation in need of currency is a fantastic story really deep down it's all about the bottom line it's just a fabulous marketing idea said Ernest Levenstein a Leisure Time analyst with the New York brokerage firm of Tucker Anthony and RL day people are going to hoard the money and Disney will get the float experts speculated that fans would only use half of the Disney Dollars that were exchanged Disney essentially reaps the benefits of the unused dollars and they accumulate interest when they are spent years later due to inflation because of the fun nature of the Disney Dollars purchasers are less inclined to think of them as real money may even end up spending more than the value of the Disney Dollars they have on hand some Studies have shown that people spend 20 to 30 percent more than the value of a gift card and you can certainly apply that same Revenue logic that Disney had in mind for the dollars let's get to the fun stuff the actual design of the Disney Dollars throughout the years the waving Mickey dollar Was Not The Only One released in inaugural season in 1987. there was also a proud looking goofy five dollar bill with a Liberty Bell on the backside it wasn't until 1990 until we saw a new character get represented on a Disney dollar and it would be Minnie Mouse the first female I'll bet fictional to be displayed on United States currency 1997 saw the Disney World 25th anniversary series with Mickey Goofy and Simba representing the Disney Dollars that year the year 2000 saw the Millennium celebration series with Mickey Goofy and Donald Duck and 2001 saw a celebration of the Disneyland Resort of California Adventures inaugural year and opening 2002 celebrated 100 Years of Walt Disney with Mickey Snow White and Tinkerbell gracing the front side of the Disney Dollars in 2005 there was a much larger influx of new characters with Dumbo Chicken Little and Stitch as well as a limited edition 50 bills series of Mickey Mouse dollars that we'll actually get into later in 2007 we saw the 25th anniversary celebration of the Disney dollar itself with the addition of Ariel Aurora Cinderella and a series of three different Pirates of the Caribbean dollars each representing the Black Pearl Flying Dutchman and the empress on the back 2008 celebrated 80 years of Mickey 2013 introduced villains and heroes and even include the first known Disney dollar error with the misspelling of Dalmatians on the 101 Dalmatians Dollar in 2014 the mountains of Disney were celebrated and this would be the very last year of new Disney Dollars the gift certificates digital currency and the new edition of magic bands the importance and significance of the Disney Dollars was no more and it was retired to this day Disney Stores cruise ships and Parks will still accept them however if you have Disney Dollars Today I highly urge you to hold on to them the value of the dollar is significantly higher than the denomination it's worth there are several factors that will determine the value of the specific Disney dollar one includes the serial number the lower the number the more expensive and sought after it is the condition and exclusivity of the dollar is another factor for instance this great condition 1987 waving Mickey dollar from the original year cost me 19 amongst quite a few bids on eBay in the summer of 2022. I also won an auction on two 1987 five dollar goopy dollars with the original Disney dollar advertisement for 81 dollars one of the dollars even includes a snow white 1987 stamp on the back if anyone knows the significance of the stamp please make a comment below these are just some of the cheaper Disney dollar options you can find the 1997 10 cinema dollar I mentioned earlier it averages out to 118 dollars and four cents in value at the time of this video the 10 2005 Stitch dollar averages out to 35.77 the 1987 five dollar proud goofy Dollar in good condition averages out to 49.4 cents however you can save a significant amount of money if you look at them and use condition such as these two examples here the 2005 50 tuxedo Mickey only had a limited number of prints and it is a highly sought after a dollar it averages to around 642.23 but again it matters on the condition of the dollar the rarest and most expensive Disney dollar is the Charles Boyer design dollar that celebrates Disneyland's 50th Anniversary only 2 000 of these were ever released they average out to 2797.56 and I can only imagine the value of every Disney dollar is only going to go up let's revisit that hole that Tom DRC bought on the dollars induction back in 1987. and estimate what would be worth today Tom bought exactly two thousand three hundred dollars worth of Disney dollars as well as the first artist proof sheets of the Disney dollar design in the Disney Anna store on Main Street so I'll just calculate the dollars on average if you bought two thousand three hundred dollars worth of waving Mickey dollars then that stack would cost 19 each today thus totaling forty three thousand seven hundred dollars assuming they're all in great condition that artist proof sheet that he got is a bit harder for me to figure out since he got the very first proof set this example here which is 207 out of 400 goes for two thousand dollars if I can only imagine that Toms would go for 5 000 or even ten thousand dollars Disney dollars as a whole was a big success for those who collected them and Disney themselves a Disney executive claimed that the dollars earned more than 200 million in unused Revenue since 1987. I'm sure they'll continue to reap the benefits for years to come if you'd like to become an owner of a Disney dollar there are always hundreds of online listings for them at any given time if you'd like to save some money buy and use circulated condition as they can easily go for less than ten dollars as for me I plan on keeping my set as a collector's item adding to my growing compilation of Disney history that crazed that Walt Disney himself created in 1928 is still growing stronger than ever nearly 100 years later [Music]

Channel: The Midway Dispatch

Views: 10,263

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Id: QOjANmIeBkw

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2023