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 Replies: 41 / Views: 3,827 |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1091 Posts |
I'm hoping someone here can explain this mystery. I'm amazed at the demand for pennies. For the last 30 years or more, The US Mint has made around 10,000,000,000 pennies a year. Over thirty years that would be about 1,500 pennies for every man woman and child in the USA. What do you guys do with them all?  |
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Forum Mom
 United States
5877 Posts |
Well, I saw about 2000 of them laying in the middle of our road.
Really...I'm being serious. About 2 years ago, my kids found a large mound of change laying in the road. Most of it was pennies but there were quite a number of nickels, dimes, and even quarters in there. They came and got me to go look at it and there were easily over 2500 coins there. None of the neighbors knew anything about them. My kids brought them home and there was over $60 there. The funny thing is that there was dirt and stuff all through the coins and they looked like they'd been there for a very long time, but there's no way they could have been laying in the open road for that long. Strange, huh?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
867 Posts |
I can tell you where all the pennies are! They're in my vault! I'm sure that every time I go in there there's another bag sitting there that wasn't there before. Kinda spooky if you ask me... Guess that's what happens when you leave them alone in the dark too long.[:0] Of course, since I'm on vacation this week, no one else will think to ship out any bags of coin. Anyone care to guess how many bags will be waiting for me when I get back to work?  Rachel [:p] |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2724 Posts |
We have 300,000 sitting in the bank vault awaiting CoinFest.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2271 Posts |
A penny has less value than the effort required to recirculate it. Many people refuse them or toss them in the garbage when they get them. They accumulate in change jars and along sidewalks and parking lots. They are sucked up in vacuums and otherwise end up by the ton in landfills. Years ago when Niagra Falls was shut off for repairs six truckloads were removed. Due to the low value these coins often make a single journey from the mint to the banks ti the stores and to the landfills.
These cost the government well over a cent to produce so now we've lost money on the coins we get back even before we see them.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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New Member
United States
41 Posts |
I have a jar in my living room that probably has my 1500 in it. They are a pain to carry around. I probably should look through them but that will have to wait for a rainy day.
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Valued Member
Netherlands
309 Posts |
Hmmmm, looks like you still have the problem that we had here untill 1980!
In 1980 our goverment took the 1 cent pieces out of roulation, sinds then untill the euro came we rounded everything of at 5 cents.
Now we have the same troubles again with the 1 and 2 euro cents, manny people dislike them, it's getting soon to heavy in the wallet, and people diddn't want them, so now we started to round the ammounts of to 5 cents again.
I don't know how you folks do it, but here we put all the change in a pot, and every now and then we take it to the bank to change it into paper money again.
Here in the house, we put after every shopping trip all the 50 cent 1 and 2 euro pieces into a cilinder, that we make empty once a year, when we book our holliday vacation :-)
Greetings, Carl
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2271 Posts |
quote:
Originally posted by CarlTromp
Hmmmm, looks like you still have the problem that we had here untill 1980!
In 1980 our goverment took the 1 cent pieces out of roulation, sinds then untill the euro came we rounded everything of at 5 cents.
Now we have the same troubles again with the 1 and 2 euro cents, manny people dislike them, it's getting soon to heavy in the wallet, and people diddn't want them, so now we started to round the ammounts of to 5 cents again.
I don't know how you folks do it, but here we put all the change in a pot, and every now and then we take it to the bank to change it into paper money again.
Here in the house, we put after every shopping trip all the 50 cent 1 and 2 euro pieces into a cilinder, that we make empty once a year, when we book our holliday vacation :-)
Greetings, Carl
This is common here also. While the larger denominations circulate freely this practice of saving them for up to a year or two makes their velocity pretty low so even coins that are a quarter century old tend to be in V or VF. Cents though tend to stay in the jars longer because of the tiny reward for redeeming them. Also people will raid their jars for higher denomination coins which are actually usefull. Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
2078 Posts |
Since I now have to pay a bankfee for counting small change and another fee for changing it into bills I faithfully get rid of all 1,2,5 cents as fast as I get them ( I think the fee is about 2 euro ) Also there is a legal regulation limiting the amount of small change a vendor is obliged to take ; so you cannot pay for your portion of french fries whith one eurocent coins only A lot of people would want to stop the one and Two Cents but some businesses like bakeries love to raise prices to the odd cent amount |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
980 Posts |
I think there are literally hundreds of billions lying atop dressers, in car ashtrays, and in glass jars across the US. A trillion in those places isn't out of the question. (mintages nearing 10 Billion per year of late) I know I should look through, roll, and return them to the bank but I never do.
Don
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Valued Member
United States
382 Posts |
With the advent of Coinstar and other coin counting machine, I am surprised that many people don't take advantage of dumping their loose change for hard cash. Sure, they charge you a percentage, but I hate rolling coins (goes back to my paperboy days). If the mint was smart, they sould set up stations like this at Post Offices, charge a small fee, and convert buckets of coins so they go back into circulation.  That way, the mint could make "only" a billion cents per year instead of 3, 4, or 5+ billion per year! There are enough other minted years to fill the need. We just need to get them converted into cash for YOUR pockets or a nice charity. Edited by zakgold
05/25/2005 8:01 pm
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Rest in Peace
United States
2884 Posts |
Zakgold, that is a great idea! That's why it will never fly. There are to many suppliers that lobby and contribute money to the parties to see something like that go into effect. It's probably the same reason we keep making $1.00 bills, instead of mandated real circulating $1.00 and $2.00 coins. Someone or some group makes a ton of money wasting ours. Mike
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Pillar of the Community
United States
867 Posts |
quote:
Originally posted by national dealer
We have 300,000 sitting in the bank vault awaiting CoinFest.
OK, you win! I only had about $300 when I left last week!  Rachel [:p] |
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New Member
United States
44 Posts |
I look through all of mine for errors, then sort, roll and box the rest up. I had about 900 pounds of change 7 or 8 years ago. Likely to have upped that by at least a couple hundred pounds by now.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4869 Posts |
Perhaps the mint should just significantly decrease the cent mintage since there are already billions in circulation. I'm always finding pennies on the ground or people at the store don't want the pennies in their change, etc...I'm sure the cent supply is high enough where the mint can lower the mintage numbers.
David
Edited by TheForce
05/28/2005 08:26 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2724 Posts |
quote:
Originally posted by Kyra
OK, you win! I only had about $300 when I left last week!
We are hoping for 400,000 by the event date. Contributions have slown down to a trickle these days. Getting lots of press now, so maybe that will help. Could really use 1 good corporate sponsor to make this easier. |
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Replies: 41 / Views: 3,827 |
Posted 05/24/2005 10:18 pm
