Penny-picking a profitable practice
Posted on February 2, 2011 by Nicholas A. Szempruch
This article was originally printed in Numismatic News.
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Penelope has always had a penchant for picking up pennies.
One day when she was a young girl (6 years old) while on the way to the store for her mom, she noticed a cent on the ground. Bending over, she picked it up and placed it in her change purse along with the change her mother had given her for some bread. At this time she was unaware of its value, but she had seen her mother use them in the store before so she knew it had some value.
When she got to the nearby local store, she asked the person at the checkout counter what she could get for a penny. The year was 1956. She was told a cent would buy her many things. The counter person directed her to the candy counter and informed her a penny would buy eight pieces of candy or gum.
Her eyes lit up in amazement as she picked her choice of eight yummy morsels. While paying for the bag of candy, she thanked the store clerk for the heads-up and vowed to pick up every penny she ever saw on the ground from that day forward. True to her word, she did just that and still does to this day 54 years later.
FYI: United States cents were made of 95 percent copper until 1982. During that year, there was a transition by the U.S. Mint and the content of the cent was changed to 95 percent zinc with copper as an outer plating. Many people even to this day are unaware of this fact. Many others are too busy to care, a fact for which Penelope is quite grateful.
Starting at the age of 6, Penelope started saving every cent she found on the ground, in the washers at the laundry and anywhere else they could be found.
During this period, she found many wheat back and Indian cents. She placed many of these cents in her coin boards.
The rest Penelope saved by placing them in old coffee cans and Kerr jars. From 1955 to 1981 she had filled to the top more than 100 Kerr jars.
In 1982 at the age of 32, she decided the Kerr jars were not large enough for all of her cents so she started placing them in a 55-gallon barrel she got at a garage sale. She used $5 worth of the cents to buy the barrel, so it was essentially free.
Money was still tight for her in 1982, so she vowed at that time to go to the bank as often as she could and get rolls of cents to look through for copper cents. From 1982 until 2000 she saved only $100 worth of copper cents per year. During this era, the majority of cents in circulation were 95 percent copper so she had to work very little to find them.
Between 1982 and 2000 she saved $1,800 worth of 95 percent copper cents. They were now in three 55-gallon barrels full to the brim in her basement.
Fifty dollars worth of 95 percent copper cents weighs about 26 pounds, making her three barrels weigh more than 996 pounds avoirdupois, at 16 ounces to the pound.
From 2001 to 2010 Penelope saved $200 worth of cents each year. Though many more of the cents in circulation at that time were the zinc/copper-coated cents, she has averaged a 37 percent copper-to-zinc ratio over the last 10 years. Finding copper cents is a little more work, but she still gets results. Over the last 10 years she saved another 1,040-plus pounds of cents in her now seven 55-gallon barrels.
The total weight of these barrels of U.S. cents is more than 2,000 pounds. The total approximate number of copper cents in her seven barrels is more than 38,000. The total face value of cents in her barrels is $3,800.
In December 2010, copper reached around $4.25 and seems to be going up in a cyclical way. At $4.25 a pound, a 95 percent copper cent contains 2.8 cents worth of copper at melt. More than 38,000 cents at 2.8 cents equal $10,640 of copper at melt as of December 2010.
Recently Penelope was offered $20,000 for the seven barrels by a local coin dealer. She turned the dealer down. She states she is waiting for a better offer because she is sure there are many rarer dates and possible valuable error cents in her hoard.
She has no worries of being robbed because of the massive weight of her pennies and the fact that they are in her basement.
At her local coin club she is known as “Penelope Penny Pincher,” a name she wears proudly on her sleeve.
Though in the year 2010 a penny doesn’t buy the amount of goods it did in 1956, there is an upside: there are many more pennies to be found on the ground these days because many people feel they are not worth the time and effort to bend over and pick up.
This Viewpoint was written by Nicholas A. Szempruch of Bradenton, Fla., who is president of the Manatee Coin Club.
Viewpoint is a forum for the expression of opinion on a variety of numismatic subjects. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Numismatic News.
To have your opinion considered for Viewpoint, write to David C. Harper, Editor, Numismatic News, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54990. Send e-mail to david.harper@fwmedia.com.
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Calculation of Penelope’s pennies off in Viewpoint
I don’t usually write to criticize another writer, but I just have to on this one. In the Feb. 15 issue of Numismatic News, Nicholas Szempruch wrote an article in the Viewpoint section about “Penelope Penny Pincher.”
He began by trying to make us believe she picked up barrels and barrels of pennies off the ground. That’s a stretch. But Here is what I want to correct: as a president of a coin club, he should know that it takes 145 pennies to make a pound, and $50 worth actually weighs 34 pounds, not 26. This alone throws his figures out of kilter. A gallon jug (filled to the brim) will hold $50 worth of pennies. So, 55 gallon times 34 pounds equals 1,870 pounds, not 996. He goes on to say the ratio of copper to zinc is 37 percent, which is probably accurate. Now Penelope has seven barrels (55 gallons each), which is 13,090 pounds, not 2,000 pounds as he quoted.
The seven barrels he says hold 38,000 pennies. Here is the way I figure it: 5,000 pennies to a gallon times 55 gallons to a barrel equals 275,000 pennies to a barrel, times seven barrels equals 1,250,000 pennies, not 38,000 as he quoted.
Now for the dollar value. Five-thousand pennies is $50. Since he stated that the barrels are filled to the brim, there should be 55 gallons to each barrel. So, 55 gallons of pennies times $50 a gallon equals $2,750 a barrel, times seven barrels equals $19,250, not $3,800 as he quoted.
Copper is $4.25 a pound as he quoted, but the melt value is more like 3.8 instead of 2.8 as he quoted. So, $19,250 (the value of the seven barrels of pennies) times 3.8 melt value equals $73,150, not $10,640 as he quoted. I’m glad Penelope didn’t take the $20,000 she was offered from the coin dealer.
If Mr. Szempruch is accurate in saying “Penelope Penny Pincher” actually has seven 55-gallon barrels filled to the brim of copper pennies, then he must have failed his math.
I, like Penelope, go through thousands of pennies a month. I started collecting in 1999, so she has a few years’ collecting on me. I count my coppers and put 5,000 ($50) worth in a cloth bank bag and keep them in an oversized safe. I have 68 bags at the present. That’s 340,000, or $3,400. I’ve counted 145 several times and they weigh one pound. I just took a $50 bag in and weighed it. It weighed 34-1/8 pounds.
My figures are correct. I don’t know about Mr. Szembruch’s. I imagine those were actually five-gallon barrels, not 55. I hope they are wooden barrels, not metal, because metal will draw dampness and could ruin the coins. I purchased three 10-gallon milk jugs full of pennies from one guy but he kept them in the living room where the temperature was controlled and I didn’t have any problem out of them.
Or does “Penelope Penny Pincher” even exist?
Bob
Virginia
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Cent estimates don’t jibe with collecting experience
I’m writing in response to Nicholas Szempruch’s article about penny-picking Penelope in the Feb. 15 issue. I realize I’m not the only one who questions his accuracy, but my letter could give your readers a different slant.
I grew up in the heyday of penny candy, but never got eight of anything for a penny, unless you count a section of sugary hemispheres pasted on paper. I was born in 1945.
I have been sorting and saving pre-1982 cents for about three years now. I have about 100,000 housed in tennis ball containers. On an average, about 25 percent of what I look through is saved. I have found a couple of thousand “Wheaties.” Last week I got a 1909 VDB in Good. It’s the fourth ’09 I’ve found. My best find was a 1922 Canadian in EF.
I’ve found five Indians, three in one roll, but I never found any when I was a kid. Another roll was deceiving as it contained $1.65 in nickels that were packed on a slant. Four of the nickels were war nickels and three were buffaloes.
Now, to the article, I also question the 38,000 figure. One-hundred Kerr/Ball jars could house 100,000 cents. Between 1982 and 2000, she saved another 200,000 cents. Grand total 480,000 or 490,000, in other words about a half million cents.
Looking at my 100,000 cents, I’d say they would only partially fill one 55-gallon drum, let alone seven!
Tom Magielnicki
Helmetta, N.J.
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