RIP pennies

[maumann]

I still have my penny collector's books down in the basement from when my grandmother started me on coin collecting. Even though they go back to the 1909 VDB, they're worth no more than three or four times face value to a coin shop, probably. Hundred pennies in a book might get you $5, tops.

Now the U.S. Mint proof and uncirculated sets from the 60s and 70s are worth almost 10 times that! (Which is still a terrible return on investment, compared to nearly anything else in the world.) I'm keeping them just for memory's sake, rather than placing my entire retirement investment on them.

And yeah, I almost always use a found penny for a golf marker. Around here, picking up an upside down penny is bad luck. To me, it was always one more cent in my pocket.

 

[playthrough]

I still have my penny collector's books down in the basement from when my grandmother started me on coin collecting. Even though they go back to the 1909 VDB, they're worth no more than three or four times face value to a coin shop, probably. Hundred pennies in a book might get you $5, tops.

Now the U.S. Mint proof and uncirculated sets from the 60s and 70s are worth almost 10 times that! (Which is still a terrible return on investment, compared to nearly anything else in the world.) I'm keeping them just for memory's sake, rather than placing my entire retirement investment on them.

And yeah, I almost always use a found penny for a golf marker. Around here, picking up an upside down penny is bad luck. To me, it was always one more cent in my pocket.

I've got my coin collector books deep in a box somewhere. Probably haven't opened since high school, wonder what holes still need filling.

I still get excited when I find a wheat penny in the wild and put those aside.

 

[Here me roar]

I still have my penny collector's books down in the basement from when my grandmother started me on coin collecting. Even though they go back to the 1909 VDB, they're worth no more than three or four times face value to a coin shop, probably. Hundred pennies in a book might get you $5, tops.

Now the U.S. Mint proof and uncirculated sets from the 60s and 70s are worth almost 10 times that! (Which is still a terrible return on investment, compared to nearly anything else in the world.) I'm keeping them just for memory's sake, rather than placing my entire retirement investment on them.

And yeah, I almost always use a found penny for a golf marker. Around here, picking up an upside down penny is bad luck. To me, it was always one more cent in my pocket.

See a penny pick it up, all day long. You'll have good luck.

Unless it's upside down then you leave it.

And in college we decided if it was face up, if we picked it up we'd get laid. Sometimes we did ,

 

[Inky_Wretch]

In college, a bar near campus had Thursday Coin Nights. Solo cups of beer for a coin. Any coin. Pennies got me very, very drunk on more than one occasion.

 

[Driftwood]

Modern pennies will appreciate in value the same way bicentennial quarters did.
Nearly a half century later, they are worth 25 cents.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Modern pennies will appreciate in value the same way bicentennial quarters did.
Nearly a half century later, they are worth 25 cents.

Yeah but they're still cool as **** to look at!

 

[Driftwood]

Yeah but they're still cool as **** to look at!

It was cooler to watch my bank account increase by a couple of hundred bucks!

 

[ChrisLong]

Modern pennies will appreciate in value the same way bicentennial quarters did.
Nearly a half century later, they are worth 25 cents.

I've been wondering about them. I have a couple hundred dollars in 1976 quarters because I used to be a drummer and they have a drummer on them. I remember when I played quarter slots in Vegas, every time I got a payoff, I'd check the quarters and put the '76s in my watch pocket to separate them from other change. My family knew this and kept them for me. I haven't gotten one in a few years. I have about a hundred bucks in rolls and another hundred, maybe, in a liter mug I stole from the Hofbrau House in Munich in 1980.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Our company has already addressed this and said when we do run out of pennies, we'll round up change to the nearest nickel and eat the couple of cents' loss. I expect prices will eventually be converted from $xx.99 to $xx.95 or even to a round dollar.

Governments will eventually round their tax rates to the nearest nickel as well. Sales taxes certainly but probably not property taxes, which rake in tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands and a penny here or there is not consequential.

 

[da man]

I don’t mind ending physical pennies but to BYH’s point there should have been a more thought-out process than flipping the kill switch and walking away. Of note, the nickel is even more upside down on production costs than the penny.

What’s a better way to do it?

 

[SixToe]

Somewhere here in a box I have a “half dime” from the 1800s. Can’t remember when or where I got it. Guessing they didn’t have nickels at the time.

A six-pack of Milwaukee’s Best was $2.11 at the Hoggly Woggly when I was in college. Four quarters, a dime and a penny (RIP) worked. After the first nasty-ass can, you didn’t taste the rest of them.

 

[Batman]

I remember getting some 1943 steel pennies every now and then when I was a kid. I guess 40 years ago they were still somewhat common. Haven't seen one in years, though. Always thought those were neat.

 

[playthrough]

Modern pennies will appreciate in value the same way bicentennial quarters did.
Nearly a half century later, they are worth 25 cents.

If you've got rolls of uncirculated bicentennial or state quarters, there's profit to be had. Might only buy you an ice cream cone, but profit nonetheless.

When I worked at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway years ago, the bosses were cleaning out some vaults and sold rolls of Indiana quarters to employees at cost. Indy cars are on the quarter, so they had a stash. I bought a few, why not.

 

[Batman]

If you've got rolls of uncirculated bicentennial or state quarters, there's profit to be had. Might only buy you an ice cream cone, but profit nonetheless.

When I worked at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway years ago, the bosses were cleaning out some vaults and sold rolls of Indiana quarters to employees at cost. Indy cars are on the quarter, so they had a stash. I bought a few, why not.

When they came out with the state quarters in 1999(?) I made an effort to collect all 50 states. I've got them all in a tube in a drawer, all the mintiest I could find in general circulation.
Then they just kept going with it to include territories, national parks, historical figures, etc., and it was like, "OK, I'm good."

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

The penny will still be legal tender almost forever. Eventually, a lot of those stashes will be brought back into circulation once all the ashtrays and Mason jars get dumped for the inevitable 10% exchange premium like in the 1990s.

 

[playthrough]

I went on a hunt this morning for some 2025 penny rolls, call it a little FOMO and just wanting to put a couple aside. Only one bank out of five had fresh 2025s and they were limiting them to two per person -- not two rolls, but two coins. I walked out on principle, realizing how dumb it sounded to go to the bank for $.02.

 

[maumann]

I went on a hunt this morning for some 2025 penny rolls, call it a little FOMO and just wanting to put a couple aside. Only one bank out of five had fresh 2025s and they were limiting them to two per person -- not two rolls, but two coins. I walked out on principle, realizing how dumb it sounded to go to the bank for $.02.

So you gave them their two cents worth?

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

So you gave them their two cents worth?

Take your like, etc etc.

 

[playthrough]

So you gave them their two cents worth?

Well played. Was in a part of my town where, um, I wouldn't call it crime-infested but most banks have a security guy outside, another inside and then an employee asking what you're there for before you even get in line. So after she told me the sad penny story, I left.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

When they came out with the state quarters in 1999(?) I made an effort to collect all 50 states. I've got them all in a tube in a drawer, all the mintiest I could find in general circulation.
Then they just kept going with it to include territories, national parks, historical figures, etc., and it was like, "OK, I'm good."

We were already well into our 20s by then, but my future wife's grandparents bought her the album for the quarters and we filled it as the quarters were released (I want to say it was like 10 a year? I could be wrong). Pretty sure we still have it in the basement. #CrossThreading If so, I'll definitely pull that and set it aside. Both her grandparents died before our daughter was born so it'd be cool to share a tangible link to them with her.