Storing Coins in 5 Gallon Plastic Water Jugs

[Recyclersteve]

I want to ask about storing coins in 5-gallon plastic water jugs. I fully realize that the jugs would likely weigh more than an average person could lift. In a pinch, the jug could be tipped and emptied into the penny or nickel boxes that people get at banks.

But I'd like to store 1982 and before copper U.S. cents in one jug and .999 Canadian nickels (99.9% nickel composition) into another. I do NOT plan on mixing the denominations. Pennies will go into one jug and nickels into the other.

The question I have is regarding the plastic in the jugs. Will it change the look of the coins stored in the jugs long-term? Will something in the plastic leach out of it and change the appearance of the coins inside?

Has anyone actually tried this for long-term storage and had good or bad luck with it? Also, does it matter if the top of the jug is sealed tight or left open for the container to "breathe", if that is the right word.

I see lots of videos on YouTube about storing coins in the jugs, but the ones I see talk more about how many coins fit in the container than they do about the appearance of the coins themselves after many years of storage.

Any thoughtful comments would be appreciated.

[Recyclersteve]

I saw a video on YouTube where a guy had saved pennies for 45 years at the rate of about 31 per day. He had 15 water bottles full of them and they weighed a combined 2,800 pounds. I'm assuming that a bunch of them were minted after 1982 and weighed 2.6 grams vs. the 3.1 grams for copper cents. Therefore, his bottles which weighed an average of 186# each would have almost certainly weighed over 200# each if full of copper cents. My jug will only contain the copper cents, not the zincs. The other one will have only .999 Canadian nickels.

[thecrazyone]

Hi Steve,

All I can think of is if there is any residual water in the jugs, that could impact some coins.

[IdahoCopper]

I put pennies in one for decades. No change to the coins.

[Recyclersteve]

I put pennies in one for decades. No change to the coins.

Thanks for telling me this. I certainly appreciate it.

[Silver4face]

Steve,
I have never used 5 gallon jugs, but I do think it's a good idea for the long term. I would make sure that the jug(s) are bone dry before using. I would also use a label to indicate the count, especially since you might sell someday. Btw, what are you using for your CANADIAN copper?

[frugi]

its fine for storing them long term. good luck moving them or getting them out. the tipping over an dumping out method doesnt work, they dont flow out, there is too much weight coming up from bottom when tilted. you need to rock it back and forth while also shoving like a wooden spoon handle up the whole to get them out,. i had 5 full when i moved from an apartment to a house in 2007. i tried moving the first one with a hand truck down stairs, it flew off, bounced down a flight of stairs and went literally through my apartment building interior wall. I tried everything to get the pennies out of the bottles. i tried the rocking back and forth method, and that took about 10 hours before I got them all out. the best solution in the end was 1st. dont fill them to the tippity top, leave about 8 inches of space at the top. When ready to empty, drill a hole, and use a reciprocating saw to cut all the way around the top half of bottle off. That works best and quickest. I will never do that again, now i store them 5000 pcs per bag in mylar bags, inside canvas bank bags, inside 50 gallon drums in my lower level. much easier to move by hand one bag at a time

[68Camaro]

Old news (previously reported here more than.a few times) but when I started into cent collecting I eventually invested in (from a banking supply store) Federal Reserve sealable HD plastic coin bags with the built in handle. I bought a bulk box of them and when I started to run out of them (and I wasted a bunch of the bags because after filling them as I ripped a bunch of them open later to re-sort what I already had) that was when I stopped collecting cents. (The timing was right.) I still have the best of my cents stored in those bags in $50 increments, along with some bags of French Nickel. They stack and are relatively easy to move and pretty much guaranteed not to bust open.

[Recyclersteve]

Steve,
I have never used 5 gallon jugs, but I do think it's a good idea for the long term. I would make sure that the jug(s) are bone dry before using. I would also use a label to indicate the count, especially since you might sell someday. Btw, what are you using for your CANADIAN copper?

Coffee cans.

[Recyclersteve]

its fine for storing them long term. good luck moving them or getting them out. the tipping over an dumping out method doesnt work, they dont flow out, there is too much weight coming up from bottom when tilted. you need to rock it back and forth while also shoving like a wooden spoon handle up the whole to get them out,. i had 5 full when i moved from an apartment to a house in 2007. i tried moving the first one with a hand truck down stairs, it flew off, bounced down a flight of stairs and went literally through my apartment building interior wall. I tried everything to get the pennies out of the bottles. i tried the rocking back and forth method, and that took about 10 hours before I got them all out. the best solution in the end was 1st. dont fill them to the tippity top, leave about 8 inches of space at the top. When ready to empty, drill a hole, and use a reciprocating saw to cut all the way around the top half of bottle off. That works best and quickest. I will never do that again, now i store them 5000 pcs per bag in mylar bags, inside canvas bank bags, inside 50 gallon drums in my lower level. much easier to move by hand one bag at a time

May need to rethink my strategy in light of this comment. Thanks for explaining this in depth.

[Doctor Steuss]

[...]
tried everything to get the pennies out of the bottles. i tried the rocking back and forth method, and that took about 10 hours before I got them all out. [...]

My parents' church did a "pennies by the inch" fundraiser, using one of these jugs to collect the coins. I helped roll/count for deposit, and getting the coins out of there was absolutely miserable.

Definitely don't use these to store coins if you ever plan on getting the coins out without either destroying the bottle, or destroying your sanity.

[frugi]

yeah thinking back on that whole issue of me losing my mind trying to figure out how I was going to get the pennies out, the first thing I tried to do was I had a large fireman's axe and I tried chopping the bottle open (didnt care if i damaged the cents at the time I was desperate), no matter though because it was like hitting a solid copper wall. the blade would just bounce of the bottle, even with solid full swing power hits..... i was able to put a few small gouges in the bottle but that was about it.

[IdahoCopper]

I got them out by tipping over the jug and poking at the pennies with a chopstick.

They came out slowly, but easily.

[thecrazyone]

[...]
tried everything to get the pennies out of the bottles. i tried the rocking back and forth method, and that took about 10 hours before I got them all out. [...]

My parents' church did a "pennies by the inch" fundraiser, using one of these jugs to collect the coins. I helped roll/count for deposit, and getting the coins out of there was absolutely miserable.

Did you get to sing Roll Out the Barrel?

[pmbug]

I do a lot of shopping at my local Costco. They package a lot of food goods (nuts, pickles, parmesan cheese, etc.) in these clear plastic containers with a large screw top lid that make for fantastic storage containers for all kinds of things when you empty and clean them.







They are stackable and can be packed into boxes or whatever fairly efficiently.

[TXSTARFIRE]

$25.00 of cents will fit in one of those containers. When I get cents off of the coin counter I put them in those containers until I get time to sort them and return the cloth bag to the bank.