Family who found 800,000 pennies tried to find a $1mil. coin, gave up, will sell lot for $25k

Goldbully · June 15, 2023 11:38AM

They never mention the actual weight of 800k cents in the process.

They do mention their pickup trucks became lowriders.

Yahoo! News........

Insider:

"A family who found 800,000 pennies in their basement tried to find a million-dollar coin, but gave up and now want to sell the lot for $25,000"

Planchets at the mint I assume.

A family found 800,000 pennies in the basement of a deceased relative.

Some rare pennies have sold for millions of dollars, and they hoped to find one in the huge pile.

But they gave up after an hour and listed the whole lot for $25,000, multiple outlets reported.

After stumbling across a hoard of 800,000 pennies in the basement of an old family home, a couple set out to find a million-dollar penny — but gave up after an hour and listed the whole lot for $25,000, news outlets reported.

The needle-in-a-haystack search began when John Reyes and his wife were clearing out her old family home in Los Angeles, KTLA reported.

In a basement crawl space, they found an unusual trove that belonged to Reyes' father-in-law before his death: a stash of roughly 800,000 copper pennies.

The US reduced the copper content in its pennies in the 1980s, prompting Reyes' father-in-law to save the older coins, with the belief that they would appreciate in value, The Washington Post reported.

The stash was so vast that it took a whole day to remove it from the basement, the couple told KTLA.

Moving the haul to a second location also turned their pickup trucks into lowriders, Reyes told The Washington Post.

After making the discovery, Reyes contacted his nearest Wells Fargo Bank branch to see whether it would take the pennies, but the manager said there wasn't enough room in the vault.

Hearing of the size of the hoard, she said they should pore over the coins to see whether there was a treasure in their midst that collectors might pay top dollar for.

"You probably have a million-dollar penny in there," she told him, according to The Washington Post.

Indeed, some mint-condition Lincoln pennies from 1971 can be worth up to $1,000, while much-older rare pennies have gone for up to $1.7 million.

Doing some basic research, Reyes set out to find such a treasure, The Washington Post reported.

But the family gave up after an hour of looking through roughly 300 pennies, the paper said.

"We had no clue what we were looking for," Reyes said.

They're now pinning their hopes on a $25,000 sale of the whole lot, KTLA said, which is still roughly three times the coins' face value.

Reyes said he's talking to "a really serious buyer" who'd then have the tantalizing possibility of finding a treasure or two among the 800,000 coins.

https://news.yahoo.com/family-found-800-000-pennies-130453931.html

https://www.insider.com/family-search-rare-penny-among-800k-gave-up-after-hour-2023-6

Tramp · June 15, 2023 11:44AM

Close to 7,000 lbs for 1.0M pennies. Slightly less for 800K.

ricko · June 15, 2023 11:45AM

A few of our resident forum CRH'rs should combine their funds and buy the lot.... Then have a major CRH session where they all sit down and go through them. Would be fun to watch the daily reports here. Cheers, RickO

Project Numismatics · June 15, 2023 12:28PM

I think they will be lucky to get any number above face value given the work involved for a buyer and the fact that the alternative is depositing at the bank who appears not to want to accept them.

TomB · June 15, 2023 12:31PM

My first impression is that they will have to accept less than face value to dispose of this hoard and that I doubt they will come to this realization quickly.

johnny9434 · June 15, 2023 12:42PM

I wonder who there selling it thru? Just wondering (hope some one has room for it)

ChrisH821 · June 15, 2023 12:51PM

I'm assuming they are all pre-82 copper cents. This is roughly their metal value, not that anyone can do anything with them.
I find it funny that they went from just trying to cash them in to trying to get $25k for the lot just because someone pointed out that rare cents exist.

davewesen · June 15, 2023 1:01PM

$80K of pennies for $25K?

2windy2fish · June 15, 2023 1:14PM

@davewesen 800,000 X .01 equals 8,000 Dollars…

291fifth · June 15, 2023 1:19PM

Any experienced older collector or dealer could "read" that lot by sampling a few small sections of it. If it turns out the coins were all hoarded after 1963 there is likely to be little of numismatic value in it. The better date cents were gone by that time.
It might be a "fun" lot for collectors of minor errors and varieties with good eyesight and a lot of time on their hands.

Shipping the lot any distance will be a very expensive process. It won't surprise me if it eventually ends up being sold for a significant discount from face value.

ianrussell · June 15, 2023 1:45PM

This generated a huge amount of publicity - too many non-coin friends are sending me links to it to say GC should try to get it as a consignment.

Ian

2dueces · June 15, 2023 2:12PM

They’d have to pay me a couple thousand just to haul them off

silviosi · June 15, 2023 3:01PM

Ianrussel wrote:
This generated a huge amount of publicity - too many non-coin friends are sending me links to it to say GC should try to get it as a consignment.

Ian

Why those non-coins friends want you to go in the worst business decision of your life?

I think only in California you can buy. I ask a friend who own moving company and do more NY LA. 2488 Kg (5473.6 Lb) normal moving cost 6 K. But because is Legal Tender money must be move by the money security company.

I calculate: If I put by years and MM 1000 a day, need 800 days. Then look for all varieties I will say 250 a day will be another 3200 days if alone and do a precise and clean job. The results: 4000 days at a modest 250 a day is 1 Mill in my own salary. Then grading, because is work as this, and etc. I find must be recuperate a total of 25 Mill and do some extra for profit.

Better they sale by Kg or pound.

joeykoins · June 15, 2023 3:08PM

Variety/Error coin Collectors, like me. Truly understand what possible treasures await! Even the cents that aren't varieties/errors, can be worth 1000's of dollars! Just in BU & Key coins, alone!
If I had the spare $25,000. I would DEFINITELY, buy!

Klif50 · June 15, 2023 3:13PM

Now that they have taken away 20% of the coins (might have cherry picked 20,000 already) and still want the original 25K I'd have to tell them to take a hike. The scraped off the cream, have less to sell and want the original cost. Nah, I'd neg them on Ebay if I bought it from them.

Elcontador · June 15, 2023 3:24PM

Think you can get 2 cents for pre '82 coppers, but no one would want to haul away a lot of that size. I've long since given up looking at people's 'valuable' coins that have been sitting for years. Mostly it's 1940s or 1950s Wheaties, Jefferson Nickels, and maybe some silver coins from the 1940s that are worth the melt value of silver.

percyb · June 15, 2023 3:34PM

Hi class problem.

They should have included the Pennies in the sale of the house and left the coins for the new owner.

Vetter · June 16, 2023 2:31AM

They should put together 1000 count bags and put them up for auction on eBay. With the right description and title who know how many people would want some to go through. Dreams of doubled dies and varieties dancing in the collectors heads.

opportunity · June 16, 2023 2:43AM

If I'm doing my math right, they're wanting over $150 per bag of 5,000? And they're not even all Wheats? Gooood luck.

DCW · June 16, 2023 5:06AM

With all the free publicity, I would think these would be an easy sell from the "gambling" standpoint. Mystery boxes anyone? Maybe call Vaultbox Series 3 😆

JBK · June 16, 2023 6:18AM

They spent an hour searching 300 coins, and then they gave up?

Calling Joey. We know you do rolls, how do you feel about loose coins?

BTW, the original headlines from last week made it sound like these were left behind by a former homeowner and "discovered" when the owners moved in. Turns out it was the guy's late father-in-law who hoarded them. No one in the family knew about his hobby?

sellitstore · June 16, 2023 6:39AM

Has anybody been prosecuted yet for melting copper cents?

Che_Grapes · June 16, 2023 7:31AM

@ianrussell said:
This generated a huge amount of publicity - too many non-coin friends are sending me links to it to say GC should try to get it as a consignment.

Ian

Get each one graded and sent to cac - one by one …

nwcoast · June 16, 2023 8:27AM

This whole hoard and story lost its luster for me when it was determined and disclosed that they’re not Wheaties. It sounds like they were mostly accumulated in the early 80’s and memorials? Good luck getting rid of those!

Mr_Spud · June 16, 2023 8:35AM

If only they had one of these…

rte592 · June 16, 2023 9:20AM

Three cents a piece for wheat cents?
Sounds doable but not an 80 thousand lot.
Be interesting to see if they break up the lot at some point or if some larger company steps in and relieves them of their problem.

logger7 · June 16, 2023 9:29AM

In the age of unfounded hype, even turkeys fly.

Batman23 · June 16, 2023 9:59AM

@joeykoins said:
Variety/Error coin Collectors, like me. Truly understand what possible treasures await! Even the cents that aren't varieties/errors, can be worth 1000's of dollars! Just in BU & Key coins, alone!
If I had the spare $25,000. I would DEFINITELY, buy!

Don't you know a banker or two? I'm sure you can get fronted some money for a small fee and then pay it back with the proceeds of the million dollar cent you will find! You might have to promise to deposit the culls with their competitor though

Connecticoin · June 16, 2023 10:02AM

They could try to sell to whoever fences stolen scrap copper, if they pay more than half of melt value. But probably not worth the risk, and too much to fence.

Connecticoin · June 16, 2023 10:06AM

@logger7 said:
In the age of unfounded hype, even turkeys fly.

They actually do fly (wild ones), but not very high, and only to roost in a tree for the night.

Makes me wonder if the hypothetical turkeys Les Nessman dropped from the helicopter on WKRP would have been able to glide down. Probably not, because they are much fatter than wild ones.

TomB · June 16, 2023 10:33AM

Yes, turkeys do fly. We have many wild turkey that call our property their home and they fly from the ground up to their nests, which might be upwards of 100-feet high on and in the woods, quite frequently. Their best maneuver appears to be getting a running start as if taking off from an aircraft carrier and then commencing flight.

MarkKelley · June 16, 2023 11:46AM

We'll need a separate thread for the aeronautical abilities of turkeys debate. Let's get back to the coins.

opportunity · June 16, 2023 7:01PM

One problem with the seller is that nowhere do I see an abundance of exclamation marks in the description of their unsearched lot.

ianrussell · June 16, 2023 7:31PM

@Che_Grapes said:

@ianrussell said:
This generated a huge amount of publicity - too many non-coin friends are sending me links to it to say GC should try to get it as a consignment.

Ian

Get each one graded and sent to cac - one by one …

We could definitely get a special label for this kind of quantity.

oreville · June 16, 2023 7:37PM

I bought over 300 obw rolls of uncirculated wheat cents back in the late 1990’s at $150 per roll. Many came from Virgill Marshall the Penny Merchant located in Nebraska.

When I get ready to sell I must use !!!!

mr1931S · June 16, 2023 7:42PM

They might get $9-10K or so from someone with a lot of time on his hands. I would want to random sample the lot to get an idea of percentage wheats, percentage that are post-1982, etc. Million dollar penny? Good luck on that one.

oreville · June 16, 2023 7:51PM

800,000 cents is equal to $8000 in cents which is equal to 160 $50 mint bags at 35 pounds each.

DCW · June 16, 2023 8:24PM

@oreville said:
I bought over 300 obw rolls of uncirculated wheat cents back in the late 1990’s at $150 per roll. Many came from Virgill Marshall the Penny Merchant located in Nebraska.

When I get ready to sell I must use !!!!

$150 a roll? I hope you meant $1.50!

oreville · June 16, 2023 10:01PM

Yes $1.50

oreville · June 16, 2023 10:01PM

Or less

oreville · June 16, 2023 10:03PM

Oh my Did not realize I left out the decimal point.

tcollects · June 17, 2023 3:37AM

@oreville said:
800,000 cents is equal to $8000 in cents which is equal to 160 $50 mint bags at 35 pounds each.

sell them in bags using large flat rate USPS boxes, the guy with the garage full of pennies and the Ferrari will buy them

tincup · June 17, 2023 6:30AM

Ebay would certainly be a venue. Call it the "LA Hoard" or some such, and sell by 25 pound weight or so. The coins would sell..... but so much work and time!!

Otherwise... if selling entire amount as a single lot.... will most likely have to do so at discount from face value. The logistics dictate that.... just too large of an amount.

shirohniichan2 · June 17, 2023 8:51AM

They should put them in 50 gallon drums, like the ones Miss Haversham filled with Buffalo nickels and buried in her backyard.

Estil · June 17, 2023 9:02AM

@rte592 said:
Three cents a piece for wheat cents?
Sounds doable but not an 80 thousand lot.
Be interesting to see if they break up the lot at some point or if some larger company steps in and relieves them of their problem.

Even 1959-81 Memorials have at least that much in copper in them! I wouldn't mind searching through them for Wheaties!