Pennies
 

I heard the banks needed some change, so I gathered up a few pennies I had laying around. 50 + lbs.

Actually .... thank you, that was a good deed, helpful to you, helpful to keep things working smoothly.

My credit union has a change machine in the lobby. You enter your account number, throw the change in the chute and its applied to the account.
So much for all the change wrappers we used to use

There was a guy on the local news the other day who had been saving change for 30 years, and he decided to bring it to the bank. It ended up being about $5,000 worth; of course it was earning him zero interest for all those years it was hanging around his house taking up space.

I have several of the big prezel jars (roughly two gallon sizes) full of change I've accumulated over the years. I used to turn convert my loose change to cash regularly at my credit union, but they took out the coin sorting machines. I'm not going to pay coinstar 10% or whatever their fee is to sort it for me, so it has accumulated.

In the later 60s and 70s, my dad was saving all of the pre-1964 silver coins. Then in the 1990s, dad started saving all of the pre-1981 copper pennies. Pennies made after 1981 are mostly zince. My mom would go to the bank and get dad several dollars of wrapped pennies. He would pick out the older pennies and re-wrap the newer pennies and take them back to the bank. Mom didn't mind, it kept him occupied after he retired. I now have two five gallon buckets full of older pennies.

I think coins will be made obsolete within my lifetime. What do you guys think?

When I was hauling car a guy we worked with saved his change, and had been from before I started working there. He carried his own meals in the truck with him and never bought a meal out on the road. He retired and passed away in the early 90s. His kids got everything. Even the all of the milk cans full of change. We heard the cellar was full of them and it wasn't a small house. We never heard how much change was in them, but I bet it was more than 5 grand.

Some place around here won't even let you pay with cash if you don't have the correct change in coins.

Now they want to do away with them. There goes prices going up again.

Some banks will no longer take coin rolls because of fraud. They want to use the coin machines as they are almost foolproof.

My bank just called me with the amount.
Anybody want to take a guess ?
NO, ya don't win a penny

$82.63

I have my doubts about this whole "national change shortage" situation, you know, the shortage that followed the "meat shortage"? I saw a suggestion posted online that I think is a great idea. If a store claims you must pay either by card or exact change, combine both and do this. Pay the dollar amount with cash and make them put the change on your debit card.
And I personally will not shop at a local business that won't accept cash.

$90.72

$96.01



Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?

Business and bank closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly disrupted the supply chain and normal circulation patterns for U.S. coins. While there is an adequate overall amount of coins in the economy, the slowed pace of circulation has reduced available inventories in some areas of the country.

The Federal Reserve is working with the U.S. Mint and others in the industry on solutions. As a first step, a temporary cap was imposed on the orders depository institutions place for coins with the Federal Reserve to ensure that the current supply is fairly distributed. In addition, a U.S. Coin Task Force was formed to identify, implement, and promote actions to address disruptions to coin circulation.

Since mid-June, the U.S. Mint has been operating at full production capacity, minting almost 1.6 billion coins in June and is on track to mint 1.65 billion coins per month😱 for the remainder of the year.

As the economy recovers and businesses reopen, more coins will flow back into retail and banking channels and eventually into the Federal Reserve, which should allow for the rebuilding of coin inventories.

Around here, the reason I have heard is that the business's don't want to take change. They think the virus could be on them. Most want credit card only.


:confused:

$106.53

Seeing as how you didn't give the exact weight, I'll answer for 50 pounds. 50 pounds of zinc pennies should be around $90.00. Any amount over that should be about $1.80 per pound.

If the pennies were copper, there are only 145 pennies in a pound.

Why do I know this? Because someone on another board was talking about going through pennies to find all copper ones, melting them down (it's not legal, but...) to make a profit.

IIRC, not counting your time and the cost of melting the pennies down, you would net about $1.21 per pound over face value. That guy thought it would be worth it, but I value my time more than that....

Well dataway had the right numbers, but in the wrong order.
The amount was $86.32.
Pretty scary .

No xtra charge for the entertainment. ;)

FWIW, someone mentioned Coinstar charging 10%, it's actually currently 11.9% for using their machines.

A consumer service actually counted their money before they put it through the coin counting machine. It not only charged the listed 12% service charge, it shorted the count of their money another 20%.

Coin counting machines apparently cannot be trusted to give you an accurate total of your change.........................:focus:

Pretty scary! Maybe an omen?? You guys in IL and NY better play those numbers in tonights Pick-4 state lotteries (if your states have Pk-4s tonight), straight and boxed, and not $1 tickets either!

And buy the tickets with pennies!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wGD84j0_t8

lol