Where Do The Pennies Go?

Almost all banks now use a monetary service like Brinks. They will take bagged coins and re-roll and box. They then sell these back to the banks with a small premium added.

Jim

Not sure but I suspect the government conficates them all, melts them down, reuses the material for new coinage. As more and more of what the bank takes in vanishes from Earth, the Mint is allowed to make many, many, many more. This gives them a steady job, a pension, medical insurances and plenty of overtime too. This also provides Mint truck drivers something to do by going around grabbing all those coins.
You hear about people in all types of jobs getting layed off. Ever hear of a Mint worker getting layed off?

You might be at least partially right. Back in the 1960's the Fed had machines that separated the silver coins from the clad for all the coins that came through their hands. The clads went back to the banks and the silver went to the smelter. It would not surprise me if they are doing the same thing now with the copper and plated zinc cents. Run $10K in cents though the machine, get $2K in copper cents with $4K worth of copper in it. A $2K profit for every $10K processed. That's a 20% profit. (Of course if they replace those 200,000 copper cents with 200,000 Zincolns that they lose a Half Cent each on then it's down to just a 10% profit.)