A Sad Admission about Pennies

[Recyclersteve]

I have a sad admission to make about pennies, but here goes.

I got $5 in face from my local bank this week, as they have lowered their limit to $5.

I went through the 500 coins and it took me 51 minutes to do so. There were a total of 41 coppers that were pre-1982 plus 2 (of 3) copper 1982’s. So 43 coppers total.

I called 4-5 local dealers and none of them wanted to pay any premium at all for copper cents- NONE! Let’s say I get lucky and am able to find someone who pays 2x face.

That would be a profit of only 43 cents in almost an hour and that doesn’t include the time and gas it takes to return the zincs to a bank with a coin counter. With most states having minimum wage of $10-15 an hour, this is ABSOLUTELY NOT WORTH THE TIME!

If I take the same amount of time and look for stocks to trade or even look for items I can scrap/reuse or donate to Goodwill, it is a MUCH BETTER USE of my time. I was initially very sad when my bank said they would only give me $5 in pennies. But it forced me to think things through more clearly. No more wasting time on pennies.

[silverflake]

Recyclersteve, I hear ya. To my friends here on realcent who still accumulate copper pennies, I give a big shout out. Your reasoning is spot on, your dedication is admirable and your knowledge is unquestionable. However, to Steves point, I mentioned in another thread here that sometime pre-covid, I finally gave up and cashed in my coppers at the bank. In retrospect I guess I could have put them up here but it was "only" $450 face value and at the time I took that currency and bought a quarter ounce gold eagle. I am pretty sure that eagle has increased in value more than my copper pennies would have and I know I can sell it easily (whereas the coppers would be a hassle just to turn in at the bank for face value as they freak out at anything thats not paper or electronic). The bulk of only $450 in pennies was immense in my small house and I had lost the drive to search. My reward came from searching rolls with my boys. I would buy a box of pennies and we would each pull our rolls out and search as a family. THAT was fun. But they are adults now. That window of life is closed.

I am trying to dis-hoard my house, and my boxes and bags of copper pennies was reduced to a gold coin the size of, well not quite a US quarter. It was a good trade.

To the folks who still stack the coppers, my hat is off to you and it really is a good thing. But no more for me. I will continue reading the adventures and finds of those who search.

Keep stacking.

[willy13]

For me, it was a way for a normal guy (finacially) to hoard a hard asset in case of a world wide financial meltdown. And with zero risk. One example which could cause a financial melt down would be a repeat of the 1859 Carrington Event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

But as I began sorting it turned out I found it be fun and relaxing, and then it turned into a hobby. Show me a cheaper hobby? Now in my case I got into die varieties which makes the hobby way more exciting. I ended up discovering the first of the 2012 doubled die #3.
https://www.coppercoins.com/lincoln/die ... _state=mds

[DC_Penny_Guy]

I still find 15% - 20% copper in most boxes.

I usually don't have the time to search pennies, so I just take my weekly order of $150 and put all the boxes into the storage pile... Got well over 100 unopened bank boxes at this point.

I know it will be difficult to cash them in one day, but it's more for fun than for investment.

[willy13]

I still find 15% - 20% copper in most boxes.

I usually don't have the time to search pennies, so I just take my weekly order of $150 and put all the boxes into the storage pile... Got well over 100 unopened bank boxes at this point.

I know it will be difficult to cash them in one day, but it's more for fun than for investment.

I have to believe unopened bank boxes will sell easily to people like me who enjoy looking for die varieties. When banks completely stop handing out unsearched boxes, die variety hunters will need to buy unopened boxes to continue the hunt for 1972 doubled die, etc....

[cwgii]

Fishing analogy. I would rather catch 50 perch or bluegill ,,, pennies,,.
than spend all day trying for one trout.halves.

Or weeks attempting to get a muskie...die errors.

[JerrySpringer]

Managed to get 2 boxes of pennies each from two TD bank locations today. So, some locations are being tight wads with providing boxes and some are not. Still getting 20% copper yields from the boxes and ok amount of wheats. Was dumping coins at a Bangor savings bank and there was a technician finishing up working on the coin machine. It is a Glory model and Bangor is using them as a replacement to the toploaded types they had for years ( Cummins model). He said they differentiate coins based on alloy properties and size I guess. Mentioned that the zinc type Canadian pennies get rejected for basically that reason. The machines are not calibrated for them ( the 1997 to 1999 minted ones).

[pmbug]

As I've mentioned in other posts here, I usually find shiny treasures on my morning walks and such. I find loose change everywhere.

About a week or two ago, my cookie jar where I toss these treasures was getting full so I took the time to fill coin rolls for the quarters, dimes and nickels in the jar. I just filled 4 snack sized Ziploc baggies with the pennies. I had already removed any wheat pennies, but I didn't bother segregating copper from zinc coins. I took it all to the bank and deposited it and then bought a few ounces of silver with the proceeds.

[Silver4face]

As I've mentioned in other posts here, I usually find shiny treasures on my morning walks and such. I find loose change everywhere.[b][/b]

About a week or two ago, my cookie jar where I toss these treasures was getting full so I took the time to fill coin rolls for the quarters, dimes and nickels in the jar. I just filled 4 snack sized Ziploc baggies with the pennies. I had already removed any wheat pennies, but I didn't bother segregating copper from zinc coins. I took it all to the bank and deposited it and then bought a few ounces of silver with the proceeds.

I rarely find loose change, except when I report to DUMP MACHINES.

[68Camaro]

If you've just started to acquire hard assets as protection, and you can get a bank or CU supply to sort, these remain a good option for people without much cash for conversion. It is a natural progression, given time and funds, for cent sorters and stockers to then move to silver (perhaps with a stop at nickel along the way, or not), and eventually for many, to gold. As I've said many times, I did offload about two-thirds of my cents, buying silver with that, but I kept the best of the best of the cents. I did offload my US nickels (sorting and keeping the warnickels and buffs and some of the more rare Jeff's, and bought more silver. I kept my bullion nickel and some nickel collection books just for fun.

At where I am, continuing to sort cents doesn't make time sense for me, but I miss the excitement of it, and for anyone just getting started, it's a good way to get your toes in the water.