save your pocket change - Page 2

Thanks for the information.

It scares me that the dollar itself is no longer backed by gold OR even silver anymore for that matter.
The Dollar itself only has value, because we give it whatever value.
Pretty scary, since a dollar is like 42 cents or so of DEBT actually.

Guess that's why people are hoarding gold these days and running up its' price.
(Although that recently fell too, IIRC).

Oh, Funny story:
One time I was walking to a bus-stop to an office job each morning.
The bus stop was at a shopping mall, so I started cutting through it at about 7am.
Noticed the multiple "wishing well" fountains were full o'coinage....
Started to scoop out silver color coins each morning...
tryed grabbing the pennies too and believe me, they added up to waaaay more.

So, then this one day , a buddy was desperate for cash. He was older guy (gray hair even) , he asked me what I had to make a quick buck (I'm good at that usually) .
Told him I only had one idea lately, "but it's silly"....
Gave him a ride to the mall (mid-day) ...
We started scooping all the coins (I'd advised him pennies add up more) ...
Anyway, he fell in the fountain and kept grabbing the coins in middle of mall!
I saw a security gaurd on second floor, and told him OK, Lets go now.
But he wouldn't get out.
So the security guy came down, and told him ,"get out, those aren't yours"
But he said , "They are not yours either, and they ARE mine"
Then he told him, "Look, these are peoples wishes and I'm taking them to the wish fairy and so they ARE mine, ALL MINE (or the people won't get their wishes)"



I was watching it all off to the side.
Then he climbed out of the fountain with water dripping all over the marble floor!
Security was afraid of him, so as we walked to my car he looked at me and says,
"IF YOU EVER TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS I'LL..."
It makes me laugh to this day! It was hillarious.
Everytime I think of this guy ...

Well I knew a criminal guy one time who used to make a special tool to bust open newspaper machines, and a bum guy who used to go to D.C. parks for coins, but those are not funny like this one was!

smfh...

yeah i have a load of change dont know if i have very many older pennies.The are 2 times there value worth alittle bit more would take forever to make any real money at it.Unless you could say have $1000 worth then you would have earned a quick $1000 that would be to bad lol.

How would you even melt then.I guess melt them and pour them in a mold or something?

Originally Posted by Focker

yeah i have a load of change dont know if i have very many older pennies.The are 2 times there value worth alittle bit more would take forever to make any real money at it.Unless you could say have $1000 worth then you would have earned a quick $1000 that would be to bad lol.

How would you even melt then.I guess melt them and pour them in a mold or something?

Against the law to melt. People hoard them just in case the government lifts the ban.

There was a news story about "immoral" scrap yards getting away with scrapping pre'82 pennies a while back I saw (before I was a full-time scrapper)

Well, anyway my earlier reply was getting too long, but I saw a very interesting story one time:
Somebody (from a college IIRC) did a project,
Where they actually trained crows (or Ravens, same family birds anyway)...
To pick up coins from the city street.
These Birds would then place them in basically a "bird vending machine"...
Then bird food of some sort came out.
AND this project actually worked!!!

These birds would collect loose coins off the street, fly up to the machine, drop them in, and food for them came out!

I thought it was very interesting.
No time to find a linky right now though, but I remember that one...very cool idea IMO.

i know you cant melt them now but i am saying if you could what would u do melt them and pour them in some kind of mold

its illegal to melt us currency. If you melt them they can figure it out, all they have to do is test the bar. 95% copper, 5% zinc. only pennies have that ratio of metal, so they would know. Also, If you melted them, you could melt them into a bar. but if your scrapping the bar it would pay the same price as if you brought them in whole.... minus your t/m for melting. So "IF" they ever legalize it, just bring in the pennies. no point melting them down.

Just got through $25 worth of penny rolls tonight. Found some wheaties some canadiens AND one Indian Head. Might go in Monday for some half dollars. I've burned through $1100 worth of half dollars to get 2 40%'ers. Just doing it as a side gig when I'm bored. Just grab a roll and thumb through it.

I go through a box of halves, a box of nickels, and 4 boxes of cents every week. A box a night, with one night off. Last night I went through the halves.

Found 6 NIFC (not intended for circulation). 1987 and anything after 2001 were never intended to be circulated. The US Mint only sold them directly to collectors. They're only worth $0.50, but I still yank them out. The Mint only made a few million of them (they make billions of pennies every year), so they will eventually be worth something.

I also found 5 40% silver halves (dated 1965 to 1970) and 2 90% silver halves. Silver closed at $31.23 last Friday, so the 5 40% halves are worth $23.09 and the 2 90% halves are worth $22.59.

So, I bought them at face value - 7 halves equals $3.50. Total silver value equals $45.68. Total profit for an hour's work = $42.08

Granted, this box was better than normal. I come across plenty of boxes that have nothing of value in them.

a cool thread!Interesting to read

I love sorting pennies. It's restful and helps my stupid brain let go of worries. I save all the coppers (i even weigh the 1982s and 83s with my gram scale). I roll and spend the zincs at retail stores, and never had anyone complain about it.

I set aside all the wheaties, even though they aren't worth much more than scrap value.

I save every nickel. Of course, war nickles (and any buffaloes) are put aside.

I look at every dime and quarter, and wholes and halfs, for silver.

My husband knows not to spend any change without running it past me first.

I don't do numismatics - that's more effort than I'm willing to put in. I'm only interested in metal values, and yes, I'm also a prepper.

actually the government issues special permits to a very very very select group that allows them to melt coins i heard of a place near by that was melting the dimes by the bag fulls this i heard a few years back when i was collecting from another bigger collector. not sure on the accuracy of this story most of you are probably thinking its a fisher-mans tale. but idk why i kinda like to think its true

I don't see the point in melting coinage. They are already exactly measured for the amounts of silver or copper in them. They are a known quantity, unlike a random ingot that someone might make at home.

Reviewing old threads and found this very informative.
The other day i had a spark of interest for stacking coinage and found this penny sorting machine. I find it a little pricey for what it does but i could see how it would speed sorting drastically. Ryedale Coin | Copper Penny Sorter (I am no way affiliated with this company and have no connection with them.)

Has anyone any experience with this machine or anything like it?
Who stacks coinage and in what form?
I think this would be an interesting discussion. I personally have around 100# of pennies, 150# of nickles, and a small box of .25/.50 silvers.

I just got a silver quarter in change the other night. Woot! Woot!

I believe that melting US silver coinage is fine, you just cannot melt (non-silver) nickels or pennies.

I was reading through this old thread and it reminded me that I lost a 1 oz silver bar from my wallet a few days ago. It was a gift (yankee swap) and has been in my wallet for years. I am bummed about it.