Realcent.org

Hi all,

I've been shooting a documentary on the American penny for over a year now. I've interviewed coin dealers, collectors, professional numismatists, and all sorts of people who have some sort of relationship to the coin. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Adam at the Portland Mint, and also toured the Marengo Cave in Indiana which has a penny lined ceiling.

I'm posting here today in hopes of speaking with someone who has years of experience with stacking copper. I've heard of large amounts of copper pennies being privately stored but have never actually seen any hoard larger than a few bathtubs worth. I understand there may be a stigma associated with copper stacking and I can certainly identify with that. Making an independent documentary on a coin no one cares about is not exactly the most conventional thing to do with your weekends. Regardless, I don't care and would hope that someone out there is also proud of what they're doing.

I would certainly be willing to compensate anyone for their time and would also cater to any stipulations one might have regarding privacy and anonymity.

Please feel free to contact me here or at dearpennyfilm@gmail.com

Thanks and hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous new year.

-Rich

Try to reach HoardCopperByTheTon. Chuck is in the Bay Area, fits your bill for someone with extensive history/knowledge of stacking pennies.
He is the forum go to guy as far as "been there, done that" goes.

Please let us know when the film is released. Sounds interesting on several levels: collecting, sorting, hoarding, numi/bullion, etc. Made in America. I'd love to see it.

Thanks I'll try and contact him if possible, a quick search on here showed a few comments that lead me to believe this may be difficult. Thanks again either way. MaxGravy thanks for your interest, it's been an interesting 2 years working on this, I'll definitely post here once I'm close to a final edit. It may be another year or so. At this point I'm still shooting and looking for content.

Out of all the scouring I've done out here I've seen a few hoards the size you are talking. Garbage barrels filled with wheat pennies. This kind of thing was going on during the last run up in copper. I think some were preparing ahead for if copper ever goes up and stays up, probably figured they were getting a great deal on wheat pennies.

What many of us do is just pure fun, roll searching, you can still find up to usually about a dozen wheat pennies in a midwest $25 box, the demo of copper/zinc ratio may be something else to look into, I just find that interesting. Heck being the last country to ditch the penny is interesting.

If you put together a good film and time the release just right you could really have something.

When putting together any serious presentation on copper, it is important to discuss those whose have aggressively tried to manipulate it. One man who got into trouble (around 2005) for manipulating copper is Yasuo Hamanaka, also known as Dr. Copper. He worked for Sumitomo, a large Japanese company.

Well, there was this guy:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/23/news/funny/pennies/

here's an impressive image:

http://s160.photobucket.com/user/jesbroken/media/w21.jpg.html

Thanks for the tips. Definitely hoping to get in contact with someone who has a hoard like this. It sounds like there are still larger hoards out there, it's just a matter of finding someone willing to discuss this. This has proven to be very difficult which is why I'm willing to pay someone for a short appearance. Either way thanks again, I'll be sure to update here as things progress. And if anyone else has a person or concept they think should be included in a film about the penny please let me know.

Have you tried going to coin dealers in your area or finding a coin club where people meet to share ideas and tips? Or a coin show?

I went to the ANA Money Show in Portland last March. I met some great people there and also got a lot of footage for the doc, however I did not meet any copper stackers. One thing that's proven to be difficult is staying focused on just the penny. A lot of people quickly go into other coins when I interview them, which is fine but not always relevant.

Stacking cu cents is the biggest waste of time and effort I've ever accomplished.

I have a ton or so and I touched EVERY cent. A waste of life! It was kinda fun like jigsaw or something, a diversion.

Now what the hell do I do with them? It's not worth the effort to move them again.

Thogey I wish I had an old Chinese proverb for you but nothing is coming to mind. I think we spoke briefly last year, PM me if you want to discuss helping out with the doc in any capacity.

DearPenny wrote:Hi all,

I've been shooting a documentary on the American penny for over a year now. I've interviewed coin dealers, collectors, professional numismatists, and all sorts of people who have some sort of relationship to the coin. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Adam at the Portland Mint, and also toured the Marengo Cave in Indiana which has a penny lined ceiling.

I'm posting here today in hopes of speaking with someone who has years of experience with stacking copper. I've heard of large amounts of copper pennies being privately stored but have never actually seen any hoard larger than a few bathtubs worth. I understand there may be a stigma associated with copper stacking and I can certainly identify with that. Making an independent documentary on a coin no one cares about is not exactly the most conventional thing to do with your weekends. Regardless, I don't care and would hope that someone out there is also proud of what they're doing.

I would certainly be willing to compensate anyone for their time and would also cater to any stipulations one might have regarding privacy and anonymity.

Please feel free to contact me here or at dearpennyfilm@gmail.com

Thanks and hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous new year.

-Rich

Looking forward to this getting completed!

Oh oh, pick me!

Thogey wrote:Stacking cu cents is the biggest waste of time and effort I've ever accomplished.

I have a ton or so and I touched EVERY cent. A waste of life! It was kinda fun like jigsaw or something, a diversion.

Now what the hell do I do with them? It's not worth the effort to move them again.

But that stacking lead you to Realcent... so not a total waste!

Well it's been a few weeks and no real responses or leads to anything yet. A problem that seems to be re occurring with this film, the people who work with coins or actually have some relationship to the penny aren't willing to discuss it openly. Not sure why this topic lends itself to such privacy. But does anyone know of another site like this that might be helpful?

There are no other sites - we are the penny kings. Copper is down right now so some of us are just sitting on our pennies (if we have pennies). I'm in Canada where penny sorting is over with no pennies available now.

Well for the right interview we're willing to put up 50,000 pennies but doubting prospects at this point. Also what's the deal with pennies in Canada? I know they stopped making them but I thought they were still legal tender for the time being.

DearPenny wrote:Well for the right interview we're willing to put up 50,000 pennies but doubting prospects at this point. Also what's the deal with pennies in Canada? I know they stopped making them but I thought they were still legal tender for the time being.

They are still legal tender, but the banks aren't issuing them anymore. All of the banks and the RCM are collecting them from circulation. A few months after they stopped making the penny several charities ran huge penny drives to collect as many as they could.

DearPenny wrote: Also what's the deal with pennies in Canada? I know they stopped making them but I thought they were still legal tender for the time being.

From what I can find they are shipped and melted down in the US by American Iron and Metal Co. Inc, based in Montreal. That would make some nice film. See-- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/penny-wise/

DearPenny wrote:Well it's been a few weeks and no real responses or leads to anything yet. A problem that seems to be re occurring with this film, the people who work with coins or actually have some relationship to the penny aren't willing to discuss it openly. Not sure why this topic lends itself to such privacy. But does anyone know of another site like this that might be helpful?

This article may give you some insight: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100917758

That could be true people are sitting on tons of these things with every intention to possibly melt. I find it amusing that you can't melt wheats, since the market brings a bit more than melt price on them why melt anyways, but at the same time that's allot of coins that are just sitting around doing nothing.

Part of the thing with pennies is they are not really worth anything, the market for them not all that great, and I'm guessing many are tied up and just sitting around doing nothing. Things were much more exciting around here when copper was nearing $4/lb.

The collecting aspect is not bad for them, looking at historical prices for collecting they were not a bad coin to collect over the years. Once they finally get rid of the dam things that will be even better for the collectors. I've been sorting boxes again, it's cheaper entertainment than sorting through American girls..

everything wrote: I've been sorting boxes again, it's cheaper entertainment than sorting through American girls..

True.......but not nearly as fun

highroller4321 wrote:

DearPenny wrote:Well for the right interview we're willing to put up 50,000 pennies but doubting prospects at this point. Also what's the deal with pennies in Canada? I know they stopped making them but I thought they were still legal tender for the time being.

They are still legal tender, but the banks aren't issuing them anymore. All of the banks and the RCM are collecting them from circulation. A few months after they stopped making the penny several charities ran huge penny drives to collect as many as they could.

Would those 50,000 pennies be copper.. or just zincolns?

HoardCopperByTheTon wrote:

highroller4321 wrote:

DearPenny wrote:Well for the right interview we're willing to put up 50,000 pennies but doubting prospects at this point. Also what's the deal with pennies in Canada? I know they stopped making them but I thought they were still legal tender for the time being.

They are still legal tender, but the banks aren't issuing them anymore. All of the banks and the RCM are collecting them from circulation. A few months after they stopped making the penny several charities ran huge penny drives to collect as many as they could.

Would those 50,000 pennies be copper.. or just zincolns?

No zincolns (well a few) but mostly steel. I recall driving around and getting several grand worth the final days the banks would sell them. The last ones I sorted were about the same percentages copper as always. It's in the reports here somewhere.