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Ok. Concerning a story I was telling highroller .... we were talking yesterday, about how I feel sorry for the guys who had to buy $25 bricks and then unwrap the silly things and then sort them! I wouldn't do it! It's just too much like work! You guys that say I like it because it's so relaxing... I can think of a lot of names for it, but relaxing ain't one of 'em!!

Ok, now.... I had my laugh.... But there is something I think worth sharing here for you guys who need to source some non bank pennies. I have a good friend who has been a jewler in the area and also has been the guy who is the long standing, non pawn shop, gold and silver buyer for 30+ years. He has brought me (non PM) coins to high speed sort because they were part of the sellers hoard of silver and gold coins and he took care of it for them as a favor or service. When he realzed what I did with pennies he went through his store finding little stashes of pennies here and there in the containers that they came to him in, from years of this sort of buying. He just forgot them because they were only pennies and only worth a penny, right? Well I sorted out a $50 bag pretty fast for him. (this is the story I told highroller.... I new the rolls I was unwrapping were 100% copper and I hated doing it. I couldn't imagine doing it for only 10 or 20 coppers!) Then today my friend calls me on one of these sort and count deals I mentioned and he said, "there are a lot of pennies in this group." Now, a lot of pennies is relative... My only responce was "they aren't in rolls are they?" I made him unroll the ones that were rolled and I ran the several 3# coffee cans of pennies. He told me the old man who owned them said, "I haven't spent a penny in a long time."

Sparing you the other details.....there were obviously enough coppers visable that I bypassed the first sort of copper away from zinc and went straight to zinc away from copper. In the end, the old man had about 2,500 zincs and 25,000+ copper pennies.

So, you guys who have friends in that business,or don't mind asking... there might be a nice soruce of copper for you that you could get for a little over face amount if you did a little thoughtful networking. (make them do the roll cracking though!)

I do find it relaxing. I work on a Psych Ward. I have a 2 year old and a 1 year old. I go to work and it's frequently loud voices and yelling and sometimes physical violence. I come home and it's craziness - running, jumping and noise! But then the kids go to bed. It gets quiet. And I get a roll, and start 2 little piles. And the only noise that cuts the silence is...plink...plink... plink.

Yes, very relaxing.

I feel relaxed already now that you put like that!

Didn't think i'd like unrolling them and sorting by handt, but every roll is like scratching a lottery ticket, just waiting on that next dime or wheat penny!!!

I am always looking for new sources of pennies... thanks for the idea... now I need to find the buddy that has coffee cans full of pennies, or some guy that is willing to unwrap boxes and boxes of rolled pennies for me...

Make a friend at the bank. That is the best source of pennies.

. A quick tip.I was unloading boxes from the car this winter and set a couple boxes in the snow, the wrappers were damp. They were still slightly damp when I opened them and they were very easy to unroll. I then gave the boxes a quick dip in a 5 gallon bucket after the next run. It did not work as well because I did not let them dry enough. But if they were slightly damp they would have been a breeze to open.

andrewjackson wrote:8-). A quick tip.I was unloading boxes from the car this winter and set a couple boxes in the snow, the wrappers were damp. They were still slightly damp when I opened them and they were very easy to unroll. I then gave the boxes a quick dip in a 5 gallon bucket after the next run. It did not work as well because I did not let them dry enough. But if they were slightly damp they would have been a breeze to open.

Well, I tried it. The dang plastic wrappers were still tough to get off and a lot slippier than before.

justj2k78 wrote:I do find it relaxing. I work on a Psych Ward. I have a 2 year old and a 1 year old. I go to work and it's frequently loud voices and yelling and sometimes physical violence. I come home and it's craziness - running, jumping and noise! But then the kids go to bed. It gets quiet. And I get a roll, and start 2 little piles. And the only noise that cuts the silence is...plink...plink... plink.

Yes, very relaxing.

I am in the same boat justj2k78. Get home from work and my 2 and 4 year old boys are litterly hanging from the ceiling. Get dinner going and everyone fed, bathed and in bed and its time to sort. Kinda like stress relief to just sit in front of the TV and sort cents.

I will say I did get a brinks box the other day with plastic wrappers and those sucked big time. Took forever to get them out. Paper rolls I can handle with ease from my boxed half dollar sorting days. Now I get my halves in bags but still get cents in paper wraps.

I just cracked open 100 rolls from two boxes last night in preparation for my Sniper on delivery. There's got to be any easier way! I crack them open by hitting them on the base of my camera tripod...don't laugh, it's actually not half bad, but there must be a quicker way, you still have to pick away paper and push coins through the ends.

GASP YOU GUYS ACTUALLY UNROLL THE ROLLS? All mine come in rolls but there is a 5 gallon bucket next to me and Whack!!!!! then just push out the pennies! If I'm flying I can usually break open a box in under 5 mins but not looking at them at all

and yes, bags would be so much easier

I have a small sorter that I have to feed one cent at a time. I actually enjoy the entire process, even unrolling. I don't have to re-roll as I dump at a TD that has a sorter. I buy silver bullion and boxed U.S. Nickels, but those purchases are not "fun."

shinnosuke wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:8-). A quick tip.I was unloading boxes from the car this winter and set a couple boxes in the snow, the wrappers were damp. They were still slightly damp when I opened them and they were very easy to unroll. I then gave the boxes a quick dip in a 5 gallon bucket after the next run. It did not work as well because I did not let them dry enough. But if they were slightly damp they would have been a breeze to open.

Well, I tried it. The dang plastic wrappers were still tough to get off and a lot slippier than before.

LOL

I've become very efficient at getting them out of the rolls. Still wish I had bags though.

I slit the side of the paper roll with a razor blade. Don't even have to go through all the layers (for those sweating the blade 'nicking' the coins). Then hinge the roll in half, opening up the 'belly' of the roll, then poke out the last ~5 from each end. The worst part of this is not going too fast when slitting a gang of them on a table with the razor blade, the blade goes laterally and I have bumped my left thumb a few times...

Yes, I've been thinking about a razor blade method, but blood and copper probably don't mix. I wouldn't care about nicking the coins, but my hand is another story!

light the box on fire, recover coins from the wreckage

involuntary tentacle wrote:light the box on fire, recover coins from the wreckage

Creative and destructive at the same time...I like it!

GulchGuy wrote:I slit the side of the paper roll with a razor blade. Don't even have to go through all the layers (for those sweating the blade 'nicking' the coins). Then hinge the roll in half, opening up the 'belly' of the roll, then poke out the last ~5 from each end. The worst part of this is not going too fast when slitting a gang of them on a table with the razor blade, the blade goes laterally and I have bumped my left thumb a few times...

This is the fastest method I've found, but I used to line the rolls up side-by-side, then slit 'em all with a utility knife. Easier to control a heavy utility knife than a light razor blade.

I'm currently hand feeding, so I use a small screwdriver to flip up the tucked-under ends (not the entire end of the roll, just the end of the paper) so that I can grab the entire bunch and line them up. I then scoot 'em one by one through a hole where they drop onto a Hot Wheels ramp and begin their little journeys. A new wrinkle is putting a makeup mirror under a "box frame"--a clear plastic picture frame with the back missing--so that as I slide each one to the hole, I can view both the top and the bottom of the coin. Helps me find wheats without flipping suspect coins over. (The plastic picture frame was a "proof of concept" but needs to be replaced with glass cuz the plastic scratches.)

I throw the rolls against the side of my house opens them pretty good alot of clean up though.

jasmatk wrote:I throw the rolls against the side of my house opens them pretty good alot of clean up though.

That's one way to get back at an underwater mortgage!

inflationhawk wrote:

jasmatk wrote:I throw the rolls against the side of my house opens them pretty good alot of clean up though.

That's one way to get back at an underwater mortgage!

I wonder if you could start paying your mortgage in zincs

What about going to the bank and asking for the $50 bag of pennies they take off the coin sorter? Just make sure you use them as your source bank and somewhere else as the dump. Thats what I do.

I use the RollWhacker 9000. Santa forgot to bring me the RollCracker 1000 again this year.. even though I been good. With the RollWhacker 9000 you just load several rolls into a canvas bank bag. Then you whack it on the concrete floor a few times. Then pour out the loose pennies.