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 Replies: 46 / Views: 6,760 |
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Valued Member
 United States
403 Posts |
The point of the story is that Americans are inadvertently losing $62M in change every year. Not willfully by tossing coins in wishing wells or whatever, but by neglectful means where the coins find their way into the trash. Yes Ultrarant, 25 cents per person is probably a low estimate. There may be $62M in the trash, but 10X that elsewhere!
Edited to correct the numbers.
Edited by NoPoMoCo
11/01/2016 4:18 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
533 Posts |
I probably toss a dollars worth of pennies a year they just aren't worth the space they take up. I keep a bag in my car for the NDQ's and cash it in when it fills up. I use one of those easy pay machines that charges you 10% but I did it a few weeks ago and had enough to buy a certified Barber dime I wanted. So it does pay to save modern coins up to buy an old one you want |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
Quote:
Zinc and copper are not particularly environmentally friendly are they? They come out of the ground and are not nearly as damaging to the atmosphere as dihydrogen oxide. Edited by Chute72
11/01/2016 09:22 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Study doesn't surprise me at all. I worked the math years ago and if the typical household (four people) hoards or throws away an average of just 3 coins a week, it will consume the ENTIRE annual output of the US Mint.
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New Member
United States
24 Posts |
not to conitue an off topic trend in this thread, very interesting "facts" btw...
30+ years ago as a kid "collecting" coins because they were unusual in comparisons to the norm I was seeing in the circulation is ironically what lead me to start all over again today, but perhaps with an additional .02 LOL see what I did there? LOL
Was the main reason for the change in the metals that our coins were produced from because of the cost? and if so, isn't it somewhat of an oxymoron if the changing of metals used to reduce the overall cost of producing a coin, turning around and make 10x's the amount?
there are places of "novelty" my better half n I have traveled to where some locations have a traditional spot for tossing coins, we have been apart of that I'm sure, but I don't think I've truly ever thrown away or truly lost a lot of coinage throughout my life, stupid impulse purchases aside on this comment tho hahahaha!
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
I used to work at a car wash about 20 years ago, probably the worst job I have ever had but it did have one positive aspect. At the end of every week, I sifted the vacuum collection bins after closing and pocketed $50-75 in change for an hour or two of dirty sifting work. If I had not been doing it, all of that change would have ended up in a landfill. That was a decent weekly bonus when minimum wage was $4.25/hr  Edited by biokemist6
11/01/2016 4:44 pm
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Moderator
 United States
188558 Posts |
Well done, Bio.  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
2668 Posts |
Don't throw away junk mail without checking it. I got $2 from that TV polling group, cash in a letter I was going to toss. I just now found a dime in a March of Dimes mailing. Not a lot, but I believe $62 million.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
I had a similar experience with a CU $1 note a couple of months ago.
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
1358 Posts |
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Hey, maybe there will be someone excited to find money... I actually usually am pleased to find money laying around. During my life I already picked up well over $1000 worth of 'roadkill' and I'm not that old yet. Fine with me if other people don't care, but money is money and it adds up quite a bit in the end.  The biggest find so far was a bunch of banknotes worth about $200. I just couldn't resist picking it up, somehow. |
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Valued Member
New Zealand
292 Posts |
 with you UltraRant I love finding spare change here in New Zealand even if it's NZ money or world money it's the thrill of finding things like a magpie bird |
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Valued Member
United States
408 Posts |
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The point of the story is that Americans are inadvertently losing $62M in change every year. Not willfully by tossing coins in wishing wells or whatever, but by neglectful means where the coins find their way into the trash. Why should people care about something that is worthless? I guarantee they would not neglect something that had decent worth. Who is going to put a penny in a jar today with a mintage of around 1.5 billion coins? Kind of useless. It's just taking up space. |
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
1358 Posts |
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Why should people care about something that is worthless? I guarantee they would not neglect something that had decent worth. Who is going to put a penny in a jar today with a mintage of around 1.5 billion coins? Kind of useless. It's just taking up space. It's still money, so it's still not worthless. Agreed, you need 100.000.000 of them to become a millionaire, and you probably need a coin warehouse like Scrooge McDuck to store them, but money is money nevertheless. To you a cent may not be worth much, but that is actually saying a lot about you and the US economy. There are still loads of places in the world where people actually work for a dollar per hour or way less (and even in the US there are many examples of people getting less than required to even exist). I've been to a lot of those places. I've seen the ghetto's, townships, favela's and highly impoverished areas where a simple cent would actually make a difference, with my own eyes. As such, I stick to my statement that money is money. Quote:
it's the thrill of finding things like a magpie bird Exactly this. It gives a good feeling to find something, even if it's just a simple cent. |
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Moderator
Canada
10458 Posts |
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They come out of the ground and are not nearly as damaging to the atmosphere as dihydrogen oxide. True, but most of the time the metal elements are tied up with sulphide or oxide minerals. They most certainly do not come out of the ground in that concentration. "Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Valued Member
United States
403 Posts |
With some trepidation, I'll ask if anyone knows anyone who throws coins away consciously. Into the trash for spite, or tossed over the shoulder in disregard, or thrown/skipped into a pond or river (George Washington didn't really do that!). Anyway, just curious.
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Replies: 46 / Views: 6,760 |
First Page
Posted 11/01/2016 08:40 am
