Making cents of it all
It took a year and a half, but our great pennies project is finally finished. We went through all the pennies that our reader Ben had been hoarding for better than 20 years, and we looked hard for oldies and rarities. It turns out there were 9,685 U.S. pennies, 21 Canadian pennies, and some assorted other change totaling $2.35. Now that the counting is done, it's time to write up our findings; we'll post our full report when it's complete. Lucky you.
Coincidentally, we had a piggy bank breaking ceremony at the house yesterday, and so the numismatic activity won't be dying down any time soon. Oh, the nerdiness.
| Posted at 8:33 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (5)
What a great activity!
I'm still waiting for the right rainy day to explore my two Pringle cans of pennies and related change, dating from my early 70's college poker days.
I understand the copper content value of these pennies easily exceeds their face value.
Any other coin hoarders out there?
Posted by Mike (one of the many) | September 5, 2011 9:04 PM
Pennies represent history. "What was I doing in 1965 when this coin was minted?" Oh the memories.
Posted by PDXLexus | September 5, 2011 9:05 PM
Pennies older than '82 have more valuable metal content -- but it's illegal to melt 'em down for it. After '82, it's the cheap stuff. 1982 itself was a split year, which leads to some interesting issues for collectors -- discussion here.
Posted by Jack Bog | September 5, 2011 9:30 PM
Such a cool project! (But it might be my pre-op meds talking).
Posted by Molly | September 6, 2011 7:00 AM
I have a feeling your girls will do very well in math this year.
Posted by Bad Brad | September 6, 2011 7:51 AM