The US used to mint a half penny coin. We stopped minting it in 1857 because it was considered to be too little value to be worth it. At the time of cancelling it, it had the spending power of 12...
The US used to mint a half penny coin. We stopped minting it in 1857 because it was considered to be too little value to be worth it. At the time of cancelling it, it had the spending power of 12 to 17 cents. Let that sink in for a moment. A dime is less valuable than a half penny. So let’s cancel nickels and dimes too. Round everything to the nearest 25 cents.
As an added bonus, it would prevent companies from nickel and diming us consumers ;)
I charge $195 for an in home piano tuning service... In that same vein, it does seem to ease the mind to have it be $195 instead of a straight $200. Or am I just being a part of the problem with...
I charge $195 for an in home piano tuning service... In that same vein, it does seem to ease the mind to have it be $195 instead of a straight $200. Or am I just being a part of the problem with that pricing scheme?
You are kinda the problem, but please continue doing it this way. People are dumb, they see smaller number on the first digit, they are pleased. You will lose jobs over those 5 bucks because of...
You are kinda the problem, but please continue doing it this way.
People are dumb, they see smaller number on the first digit, they are pleased. You will lose jobs over those 5 bucks because of that.
To sum it up - the main problem is not you, it's how people perceive the price and are unable to see that the the difference is negligible. Especially in pricing something 0,99 or 1.
The same people often fall for fake sales. I say let them have it, if they really want it that way.
I don’t know. It seems like a prisoner’s dilemma type situation. A single small business going against the trend might just fail to competitors who do pricing BS, and not make any real change in...
I don’t know. It seems like a prisoner’s dilemma type situation. A single small business going against the trend might just fail to competitors who do pricing BS, and not make any real change in the world. That being said, I try to live by the ideal of « be the change you want to see in the world ». If everyone just sticks with the status quo, the status quo never changes. If I were in your position, I would probably try round pricing and see if it will cause enough lost sales to threaten profitability significantly. My guess is it won’t matter, so charging $200 to not be part of the problem would be good. But if it actually changes sales enough to matter, I wouldn’t think poorly of a small business owner trying to make things work out.
As a side note, I would also include tax in the list price. The fact that tax isn’t included is absolutely asinine. Comparing cost of living between France and California was sometimes quite annoying, since everything in CA was 10% higher than the actual list price.
I mean, in a sense, you would be part of the problem (but only like 0.1%). I can't really fault a small business for doing what it needs to survive (especially something as niche as piano tuning)....
I mean, in a sense, you would be part of the problem (but only like 0.1%). I can't really fault a small business for doing what it needs to survive (especially something as niche as piano tuning).
My complaint was more directed the "in your face" sort of advertising that tries to use every trick in the book to get your dollar for something you don't need.
CGP Grey has a fantastic old video where he makes the case for this. I've been on the "cancel the penny" bandwagon for a long time but hell yeah, the only coins in our pockets should be 25¢ and $1...
CGP Grey has a fantastic old video where he makes the case for this. I've been on the "cancel the penny" bandwagon for a long time but hell yeah, the only coins in our pockets should be 25¢ and $1 (and maybe $2) and our bills should start at $5.
I would much rather go the other way and have a quarter dollar bill and do away with coins altogether. Coins are extremely inconvenient to store compared to bills, imo.
I would much rather go the other way and have a quarter dollar bill and do away with coins altogether. Coins are extremely inconvenient to store compared to bills, imo.
They last longer than bills though. In theory if coins are valuable enough to be used for small purchases again it would be cheaper over time to strike coins instead of print bills because you'll...
They last longer than bills though. In theory if coins are valuable enough to be used for small purchases again it would be cheaper over time to strike coins instead of print bills because you'll have to print many more bills over the lifetime of the coin.
In addition to what turmacar said, I think it's possible that part of why some folks see coins as inconvenient is because today's fistful of coins is hardly worth anything. If you had a few pieces...
In addition to what turmacar said, I think it's possible that part of why some folks see coins as inconvenient is because today's fistful of coins is hardly worth anything. If you had a few pieces of change in your pocket and it was worth $10+ dollars, with a few bills being close to $100, the story might be different.
I'm broadly in favor of the change but I'm fairly certain it was done illegally and I don't support allowing that pattern to continue by this administration. Congress should eliminate the penny...
I'm broadly in favor of the change but I'm fairly certain it was done illegally and I don't support allowing that pattern to continue by this administration. Congress should eliminate the penny with a plan for how to handle it instead of this bullshit.
I have cash quite often due to my partner using medical cannabis. I see pennies all the time so it will impact me if my meal becomes 2.25 over 2.24, even if only slightly.
I agree with you on the legality, I'm a little surprised no-one else mentioned it. I think it's a failure of Congress more than anything else. On the impact of rounding, I had the naive assumption...
I agree with you on the legality, I'm a little surprised no-one else mentioned it. I think it's a failure of Congress more than anything else.
On the impact of rounding, I had the naive assumption that if transaction totals (not individual item prices) are uniformly distributed, then digits which round down appear as often as digits that round up, resulting in no net impact on you. So I looked for some statistics. I found This recent report from a Federal Reserve Bank and this analysis by a Canadian economics student back in 2013; both suggest that there will actually be a negative impact on consumers based on transaction totals, especially for small numbers of items (which makes sense because if you buy one or two items priced x.99, your total is x.99 or x.98). However they both also suggest that the vast majority of payments already end in 5 or 0, so aren't rounded. I guess you know how common this is for you with the things you buy.
Worth noting that it will be gradual; pennies are still legal tender and they'll only disappear gradually, so businesses will also only introduce price rounding gradually. In Ireland where I experienced it, it was a little more coordinated (the Central Bank basically conducted an information campaign to get retailers and customers aware of rounding all at once, but it was never mandatory) but I expect it'll be a lot more haphazard there. Also since rounding will not be a legal mandate in the US either (as far as I can see), you could always just ask to pay with exact change when it will make a difference to you.
I used the example just because I happen to know the cost of the $2 breakfast sandwich coupon at McDonald's with my local tax added on. They're still giving pennies back, and I'm using a $20 to...
I used the example just because I happen to know the cost of the $2 breakfast sandwich coupon at McDonald's with my local tax added on. They're still giving pennies back, and I'm using a $20 to budget my spending.
It's all just so ad hoc because it wasn't done properly and even though I agree with it as a policy I hate that we're just all rolling with it and ignoring it as one of the early tests of encroaching presidential power. One that Congress failed.
I wish our legislature would realize it’s supposed to have an adversarial relationship with the executive branch. Even if the same party. To a degree anyways. We’ve empowered the executive way too...
I wish our legislature would realize it’s supposed to have an adversarial relationship with the executive branch. Even if the same party. To a degree anyways. We’ve empowered the executive way too much.
I had to look it up for the Netherlands because it's been that long but we've ditched denominations smaller than 5cts in the 1980s, then had them reintroduced with the Euro, which we then ditched...
I had to look it up for the Netherlands because it's been that long but we've ditched denominations smaller than 5cts in the 1980s, then had them reintroduced with the Euro, which we then ditched again in 2004.
They're still legal tender because this is a national policy, not an EU policy, but everyone just rounds up or down.
About 4% of American households are unbanked it's about five and a half million households. Until everyone can have a bank account and a debit card, probably via the post office or other public...
About 4% of American households are unbanked it's about five and a half million households. Until everyone can have a bank account and a debit card, probably via the post office or other public banking option, some folks will still need to use cash.
I'm assuming they were speaking about the Netherlands and more specifically about the cents. Cash has its place in society, but by and large the Dutch population does not use cash.
I'm assuming they were speaking about the Netherlands and more specifically about the cents.
Cash has its place in society, but by and large the Dutch population does not use cash.
I understand that, it wasn't obvious to me that they were speaking of The Netherlands, and I was bringing it back to why the situation is likely different in the US
I understand that, it wasn't obvious to me that they were speaking of The Netherlands, and I was bringing it back to why the situation is likely different in the US
A young American millennial checking in that still pretty regularly pays cash. 🤷 There's definitely large groups of people who do still pretty regularly deal in cash even with an abundance of...
A young American millennial checking in that still pretty regularly pays cash. 🤷 There's definitely large groups of people who do still pretty regularly deal in cash even with an abundance of digital options. I think there's still a lot of value to cash transactions especially for small purchases like food from street vendors or buying used furniture from strangers on Facebook marketplace/Craigslist. And I encounter a lot of people buying and selling used stuff that still prefer cash. I sold a car two years ago and did the transaction in cash.
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but cash has a lot of utility for a lot of people still. Especially in cases where credit card transactions are eating into the margins of small businesses.
Fair, I wanted to comment on the Netherlands part of the comment. There no-one ever uses cash for day-to-day payments. And if you use cash do it won't be for things where cents are involved (like...
Fair, I wanted to comment on the Netherlands part of the comment. There no-one ever uses cash for day-to-day payments. And if you use cash do it won't be for things where cents are involved (like used stuff).
I do agree about cents. I basically only deal in whole dollar amounts when buying or selling in cash. And when buying or selling used stuff and paying someone digitally I've only dealt in whole...
I do agree about cents. I basically only deal in whole dollar amounts when buying or selling in cash. And when buying or selling used stuff and paying someone digitally I've only dealt in whole dollar amounts, because honestly why wouldn't I just round up or down?
And if I pay for food I'll probably just leave change as part of the tip as well.
I traveled to the Czech Republic and Austria (and Munich Germany for just over a day) this summer and was very surprised how often people preferred to deal in cash. I initially suspected it was due to me being a foreigner and they had no way to know if my card had high transaction fees, but I noticed most locals paying cash as well. I'm left to wonder how much that varies regionally within even a small country though.
Yeah, as a Canadian I was shocked to hear that in 2025 the US is still minting pennies. Up here we got rid of them more than 10 years ago and it was a smooth process. However, the article does...
Yeah, as a Canadian I was shocked to hear that in 2025 the US is still minting pennies. Up here we got rid of them more than 10 years ago and it was a smooth process. However, the article does mention some barriers for the US, like some states currently banning rounding to the nearest nickel, which then requires federal legislation needed to make it work.
Broken clock right twice a day. While my children will be saddened by the lack of quite so many useless coins entering the home, I think they'll manage with the almost-useless ones. TBH we could...
Broken clock right twice a day. While my children will be saddened by the lack of quite so many useless coins entering the home, I think they'll manage with the almost-useless ones.
Australia ditched one and two cent coins back in 1992, and while I was too young then to notice I don't believe it caused any problems. I think we could easily lose the 5c coin now and even the...
Australia ditched one and two cent coins back in 1992, and while I was too young then to notice I don't believe it caused any problems. I think we could easily lose the 5c coin now and even the 10c and 20c are marginal in their utility (apart from opening covers meant to be turned with a coin, 20c is good for that).
IMO, we should introduce a $5 coin, a $10 coin and a $20 coin, and scrap the 5c, 10c, 20c, and maybe 50c coin. You can't even buy a cup of coffee with less than 3 coins right now, when you should...
IMO, we should introduce a $5 coin, a $10 coin and a $20 coin, and scrap the 5c, 10c, 20c, and maybe 50c coin. You can't even buy a cup of coffee with less than 3 coins right now, when you should be able to buy lunch with a single coin. It's so stupid.
Obviously one of the new coins should get the 20c platypus, I'm fairly ambivalent on the echidna though.
I'm ambivalent on larger denomination coins since we already have notes for them (and they sit better in my wallet) but I feel coins are easier to quickly handle and count. Many cups of coffee...
I'm ambivalent on larger denomination coins since we already have notes for them (and they sit better in my wallet) but I feel coins are easier to quickly handle and count.
You can't even buy a cup of coffee with less than 3 coins right now
Many cups of coffee these days could have the seller legally refuse to accept payment in <= 50c coins - technically these don't fit the definition of Australian legal tender if you're using them to pay for something over $5. Given the 10x face value limit for $1 and $2 coins even they can't get you much anymore (unless the seller agrees to take more than 10, but they don't have to).
Obviously one of the new coins should get the 20c platypus
The platypus is pretty good, I like the possum from the old 1c coin too. We should introduce a small percentage of coins with Kiwis on them too to mimic the experience of finding random NZ 20c coins mixed in with our 20c coins...
The penny is being discontinued, canceled, retired, pitched. At President Trump's order, the U.S. Mint will stop making them. How soon will the penniless future arrive?
I go long stretches of time without seeing or handling any physical currency. I probably have $50 in my wallet, for weird edge cases I will complain endlessly about, but that's about it. Merchants...
I go long stretches of time without seeing or handling any physical currency. I probably have $50 in my wallet, for weird edge cases I will complain endlessly about, but that's about it.
Merchants figured out, over half a millennium ago, that hauling around money was an invitation to being robbed and an artificial limit to liquidity/flexibility. You just sell items for credit. Why on earth would I go back to having a glorified bag of pirate doubloons?
Many banks/CUs have coin counting machines too. If you're a customer they'll generally dump them and count them for you. You don't roll them anymore, just bring a ziplock or whatever container....
Many banks/CUs have coin counting machines too. If you're a customer they'll generally dump them and count them for you. You don't roll them anymore, just bring a ziplock or whatever container.
I have a half gallon jar filled with pennies. I doubt they are all copper. I wonder if the other ones will have monetary value to coin collectors. I doubt it since there must be so many non-copper...
I have a half gallon jar filled with pennies. I doubt they are all copper. I wonder if the other ones will have monetary value to coin collectors. I doubt it since there must be so many non-copper pennies out there.
Hopefully there will be an easy way to sort the copper ones out and I will be able to sell them for some type of salvage.
I enjoy sorting through pre-1982 pennies to find as many mint varieties as I can. Once you've been through enough, it's very easy to discern between copper and zinc pennies by color and weight....
I enjoy sorting through pre-1982 pennies to find as many mint varieties as I can. Once you've been through enough, it's very easy to discern between copper and zinc pennies by color and weight. Copper pennies usually have a darker golden color and don't show the same signs of oxidation and decay that zinc pennies do.
The transition between the older 95% copper/5% zinc composition and the newer copper-plated zinc (97.5% zinc/2.5% copper) material occurred mid-1982, so pennies from 1982 may be either of those...
The transition between the older 95% copper/5% zinc composition and the newer copper-plated zinc (97.5% zinc/2.5% copper) material occurred mid-1982, so pennies from 1982 may be either of those compositions. Everything 1983 and onward has been copper-plated zinc (with the exception of specific mint sets from 2009 that were struck in the same 95% copper/5% tin and zinc alloy that was used for the very first Lincoln cents in 1909).
There are so many interesting varieties of the Lincoln cent, both intentional mint varieties and unintentional errors. I've yet to find a free online resource with public domain photos listing all the varieties and their details, though. Maybe the increased attention that penny collecting is receiving makes this a good time to start build something :)
Do you mean a coin collection or just a large amount of pennies in a container? I have a half gallon jar filled with pennies. It is a rip off, but I should probably go to one of those coin star...
Do you mean a coin collection or just a large amount of pennies in a container?
I have a half gallon jar filled with pennies. It is a rip off, but I should probably go to one of those coin star machines while I can.
The US used to mint a half penny coin. We stopped minting it in 1857 because it was considered to be too little value to be worth it. At the time of cancelling it, it had the spending power of 12 to 17 cents. Let that sink in for a moment. A dime is less valuable than a half penny. So let’s cancel nickels and dimes too. Round everything to the nearest 25 cents.
As an added bonus, it would prevent companies from nickel and diming us consumers ;)
Oh, I would be so happy if we could get rid of that $x.99 and $x.95 BS. I despise all the little psychological games advertisers play.
I charge $195 for an in home piano tuning service... In that same vein, it does seem to ease the mind to have it be $195 instead of a straight $200. Or am I just being a part of the problem with that pricing scheme?
You are kinda the problem, but please continue doing it this way.
People are dumb, they see smaller number on the first digit, they are pleased. You will lose jobs over those 5 bucks because of that.
To sum it up - the main problem is not you, it's how people perceive the price and are unable to see that the the difference is negligible. Especially in pricing something 0,99 or 1.
The same people often fall for fake sales. I say let them have it, if they really want it that way.
I don’t know. It seems like a prisoner’s dilemma type situation. A single small business going against the trend might just fail to competitors who do pricing BS, and not make any real change in the world. That being said, I try to live by the ideal of « be the change you want to see in the world ». If everyone just sticks with the status quo, the status quo never changes. If I were in your position, I would probably try round pricing and see if it will cause enough lost sales to threaten profitability significantly. My guess is it won’t matter, so charging $200 to not be part of the problem would be good. But if it actually changes sales enough to matter, I wouldn’t think poorly of a small business owner trying to make things work out.
As a side note, I would also include tax in the list price. The fact that tax isn’t included is absolutely asinine. Comparing cost of living between France and California was sometimes quite annoying, since everything in CA was 10% higher than the actual list price.
To me, $195 registers as "$200 with a small discount", which I actually appreciate. $199.99 would register as bs.
I mean, in a sense, you would be part of the problem (but only like 0.1%). I can't really fault a small business for doing what it needs to survive (especially something as niche as piano tuning).
My complaint was more directed the "in your face" sort of advertising that tries to use every trick in the book to get your dollar for something you don't need.
Stay away from art stores though, they might help you draw but I'd rather not also be quartered.
CGP Grey has a fantastic old video where he makes the case for this. I've been on the "cancel the penny" bandwagon for a long time but hell yeah, the only coins in our pockets should be 25¢ and $1 (and maybe $2) and our bills should start at $5.
I would much rather go the other way and have a quarter dollar bill and do away with coins altogether. Coins are extremely inconvenient to store compared to bills, imo.
They last longer than bills though. In theory if coins are valuable enough to be used for small purchases again it would be cheaper over time to strike coins instead of print bills because you'll have to print many more bills over the lifetime of the coin.
In addition to what turmacar said, I think it's possible that part of why some folks see coins as inconvenient is because today's fistful of coins is hardly worth anything. If you had a few pieces of change in your pocket and it was worth $10+ dollars, with a few bills being close to $100, the story might be different.
I'm broadly in favor of the change but I'm fairly certain it was done illegally and I don't support allowing that pattern to continue by this administration. Congress should eliminate the penny with a plan for how to handle it instead of this bullshit.
I have cash quite often due to my partner using medical cannabis. I see pennies all the time so it will impact me if my meal becomes 2.25 over 2.24, even if only slightly.
I agree with you on the legality, I'm a little surprised no-one else mentioned it. I think it's a failure of Congress more than anything else.
On the impact of rounding, I had the naive assumption that if transaction totals (not individual item prices) are uniformly distributed, then digits which round down appear as often as digits that round up, resulting in no net impact on you. So I looked for some statistics. I found This recent report from a Federal Reserve Bank and this analysis by a Canadian economics student back in 2013; both suggest that there will actually be a negative impact on consumers based on transaction totals, especially for small numbers of items (which makes sense because if you buy one or two items priced x.99, your total is x.99 or x.98). However they both also suggest that the vast majority of payments already end in 5 or 0, so aren't rounded. I guess you know how common this is for you with the things you buy.
Worth noting that it will be gradual; pennies are still legal tender and they'll only disappear gradually, so businesses will also only introduce price rounding gradually. In Ireland where I experienced it, it was a little more coordinated (the Central Bank basically conducted an information campaign to get retailers and customers aware of rounding all at once, but it was never mandatory) but I expect it'll be a lot more haphazard there. Also since rounding will not be a legal mandate in the US either (as far as I can see), you could always just ask to pay with exact change when it will make a difference to you.
I used the example just because I happen to know the cost of the $2 breakfast sandwich coupon at McDonald's with my local tax added on. They're still giving pennies back, and I'm using a $20 to budget my spending.
It's all just so ad hoc because it wasn't done properly and even though I agree with it as a policy I hate that we're just all rolling with it and ignoring it as one of the early tests of encroaching presidential power. One that Congress failed.
I wish our legislature would realize it’s supposed to have an adversarial relationship with the executive branch. Even if the same party. To a degree anyways. We’ve empowered the executive way too much.
I had to look it up for the Netherlands because it's been that long but we've ditched denominations smaller than 5cts in the 1980s, then had them reintroduced with the Euro, which we then ditched again in 2004.
They're still legal tender because this is a national policy, not an EU policy, but everyone just rounds up or down.
Good choice, that stuff is largely unnecessary.
As if anyone pays with cash, ever.
About 4% of American households are unbanked it's about five and a half million households. Until everyone can have a bank account and a debit card, probably via the post office or other public banking option, some folks will still need to use cash.
I'm assuming they were speaking about the Netherlands and more specifically about the cents.
Cash has its place in society, but by and large the Dutch population does not use cash.
I understand that, it wasn't obvious to me that they were speaking of The Netherlands, and I was bringing it back to why the situation is likely different in the US
A young American millennial checking in that still pretty regularly pays cash. 🤷 There's definitely large groups of people who do still pretty regularly deal in cash even with an abundance of digital options. I think there's still a lot of value to cash transactions especially for small purchases like food from street vendors or buying used furniture from strangers on Facebook marketplace/Craigslist. And I encounter a lot of people buying and selling used stuff that still prefer cash. I sold a car two years ago and did the transaction in cash.
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but cash has a lot of utility for a lot of people still. Especially in cases where credit card transactions are eating into the margins of small businesses.
Fair, I wanted to comment on the Netherlands part of the comment. There no-one ever uses cash for day-to-day payments. And if you use cash do it won't be for things where cents are involved (like used stuff).
I do agree about cents. I basically only deal in whole dollar amounts when buying or selling in cash. And when buying or selling used stuff and paying someone digitally I've only dealt in whole dollar amounts, because honestly why wouldn't I just round up or down?
And if I pay for food I'll probably just leave change as part of the tip as well.
I traveled to the Czech Republic and Austria (and Munich Germany for just over a day) this summer and was very surprised how often people preferred to deal in cash. I initially suspected it was due to me being a foreigner and they had no way to know if my card had high transaction fees, but I noticed most locals paying cash as well. I'm left to wonder how much that varies regionally within even a small country though.
I'm not everyone but I use cash a lot, especially at places like gas stations where there's a risk of credit card skimmers.
Well that too, and the Netherlands were very early adopters of debit card PIN payments for low value items too, but still.
<Canadians> Welcome to the club.
(Wikipedia)
TIL that Canadians are penniless.
Yeah, as a Canadian I was shocked to hear that in 2025 the US is still minting pennies. Up here we got rid of them more than 10 years ago and it was a smooth process. However, the article does mention some barriers for the US, like some states currently banning rounding to the nearest nickel, which then requires federal legislation needed to make it work.
I still have a hoard of Canadian pennies. Nowhere near 600, but a small jar half-full.
Broken clock right twice a day. While my children will be saddened by the lack of quite so many useless coins entering the home, I think they'll manage with the almost-useless ones.
TBH we could probably ditch everything below $1.
Australia ditched one and two cent coins back in 1992, and while I was too young then to notice I don't believe it caused any problems. I think we could easily lose the 5c coin now and even the 10c and 20c are marginal in their utility (apart from opening covers meant to be turned with a coin, 20c is good for that).
IMO, we should introduce a $5 coin, a $10 coin and a $20 coin, and scrap the 5c, 10c, 20c, and maybe 50c coin. You can't even buy a cup of coffee with less than 3 coins right now, when you should be able to buy lunch with a single coin. It's so stupid.
Obviously one of the new coins should get the 20c platypus, I'm fairly ambivalent on the echidna though.
I'm ambivalent on larger denomination coins since we already have notes for them (and they sit better in my wallet) but I feel coins are easier to quickly handle and count.
Many cups of coffee these days could have the seller legally refuse to accept payment in <= 50c coins - technically these don't fit the definition of Australian legal tender if you're using them to pay for something over $5. Given the 10x face value limit for $1 and $2 coins even they can't get you much anymore (unless the seller agrees to take more than 10, but they don't have to).
The platypus is pretty good, I like the possum from the old 1c coin too. We should introduce a small percentage of coins with Kiwis on them too to mimic the experience of finding random NZ 20c coins mixed in with our 20c coins...
We did this in Canada like 20 years ago. There was basically 0 effect on day to day life. I can only assume it would be even less today
I just realized I can't remember the last time I saw a penny. Maybe in a car ashtray? Wild.
I go long stretches of time without seeing or handling any physical currency. I probably have $50 in my wallet, for weird edge cases I will complain endlessly about, but that's about it.
Merchants figured out, over half a millennium ago, that hauling around money was an invitation to being robbed and an artificial limit to liquidity/flexibility. You just sell items for credit. Why on earth would I go back to having a glorified bag of pirate doubloons?
Most confusing disco lyrics ever.
I think this was supposed to be a response to @BeanBurrito
Many banks/CUs have coin counting machines too. If you're a customer they'll generally dump them and count them for you. You don't roll them anymore, just bring a ziplock or whatever container.
Call first and check probably. No fees though IME
I have a half gallon jar filled with pennies. I doubt they are all copper. I wonder if the other ones will have monetary value to coin collectors. I doubt it since there must be so many non-copper pennies out there.
Hopefully there will be an easy way to sort the copper ones out and I will be able to sell them for some type of salvage.
I enjoy sorting through pre-1982 pennies to find as many mint varieties as I can. Once you've been through enough, it's very easy to discern between copper and zinc pennies by color and weight. Copper pennies usually have a darker golden color and don't show the same signs of oxidation and decay that zinc pennies do.
Is it safe to assume that any penny 1982 or later is not copper?
The transition between the older 95% copper/5% zinc composition and the newer copper-plated zinc (97.5% zinc/2.5% copper) material occurred mid-1982, so pennies from 1982 may be either of those compositions. Everything 1983 and onward has been copper-plated zinc (with the exception of specific mint sets from 2009 that were struck in the same 95% copper/5% tin and zinc alloy that was used for the very first Lincoln cents in 1909).
There are so many interesting varieties of the Lincoln cent, both intentional mint varieties and unintentional errors. I've yet to find a free online resource with public domain photos listing all the varieties and their details, though. Maybe the increased attention that penny collecting is receiving makes this a good time to start build something :)
Mostly that my job was once again revolving around pennies a month or two ago
How will I use penny presses?! 😭
Insert a dime?
In all seriousness there are so many damn pennies out there that this isn’t likely to be a problem anytime soon.
This is literally the only use I have for pennies, now that I think about it.
Do you mean a coin collection or just a large amount of pennies in a container?
I have a half gallon jar filled with pennies. It is a rip off, but I should probably go to one of those coin star machines while I can.