Disney marketing executive Jack Lindquist, who hatched the idea for Disney Dollars, recalled later that at the beginning it wasn’t just Disney venues that accepted them. “It was not just a promotion gimmick. It wasn’t a giveaway. I wanted to create a real currency for Disneyland, and we did and it’s still being used today. I did not want to create Mickey Mouse dollars; I wanted it to have real value. So you buy one, you can spend it in the park, and originally there were a lot of businesses, restaurants, bars and so forth around Disneyland that accepted them the same as you would a dollar. And then you could spend it, or you could keep it, but you could always come back… you could use it in the park, you could turn it into a dollar.” Disney dollars became a reality on May 5, 1987, and Jack felt that between Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts, the idea made perfect sense. “We figured that we’re bigger than a lot of small countries, why don’t we have our own currency?”
