I was looking for tool treasures in the garage at an estate sale. I lifted a hardhat off the top of a pail and saw that it was half full of pennies. I paid $20 for the pail and it's contents.
When I got home I weighed the pail... 52.8 pounds!
How many pennies are there in a 50 pound container? That was the question I asked AI. The answer depends on what year the pennies were made. Pennies made before 1982 contain 95% pure copper, and weigh 3.11 grams each. But pennies minted after 1981 are 97.5% zinc, and weigh only 2.5 grams. A 50 pound container of mixed dates averages out to around 8,100 pennies. Well, I guess I got my money’s worth.
I bought the pennies to sort through. I've saved wheat-back pennies since I was a kid. In recent years I have started saving the pre-1982 pennies. It’s an investment no-brainer because a pre-’82 penny currently has over 4 cents worth of copper in it. There are people selling pre-’82 pennies by the pound on Ebay for nearly 5-cents each.
Mark my words, those one-cent coppers will be worth ten cents each someday.
As I started sorting through some of the coins (and tossing the occasional cigarette butt in the trash) I realized they were unusually filthy. They were, in fact, disgustingly filthy!
So I headed to YouTube to find out how to clean pennies. The answer was there. All I needed was vinegar, salt, and water. An outdoor sink is also kind of nice too.
Instead of washing the whole lot of them at once, I decided to wash a 32 ounce plastic deli cup of the dirty money. Every large task is less intimidating, and easier, if you break it down into several smaller tasks.
Three pounds of pennies fill half a deli cup. AI informed me that there are approximately 500 pennies in 3 pounds.
I filled the cup with water to just cover the pennies. Then I poured in an inch of white vinegar. Then I added some generous shakes of salt. The pennies on the top almost immediately turned shiny (see photo above).
I put the lid on my penny washer and gave it 100 vigorous shakes. Here's what the cup looked like after 50 vigorous shakes...
After the full numberof washing shakes, I poured the dirty water off, added fresh water, and shook again (the rinse cycle). Then I dumped the contents into a little screened garden sifter I made (a veritable colander) and further rinsed the pennies with a water spray from the faucet.
I then dumped the little copper gems onto a towel out in the sun to dry. The shiny surfaces oxidized away a little bit but the pennies cleaned up remarkably well! They are not all equally clean but they are all significantly cleaner. They are now respectable pennies!
The dates are easier to read, and sorting through all of them will be a much more enjoyable winter project.
Do you save your pennies?
I pretty much use a credit card for all transactions now. Used to use a Debit card, but for some reason, debit cards are less secure than credit cards. I try to keep about $100 in the wallet for when the plastic doesn't work, but it is rare that I need to resort to cash.
ReplyDeleteI think your approach is the norm nowadays. I have the cards and use them, but still use cash as much as I can. 👍
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