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WilliamC
Penny Collector Member
USA
471 Posts |
 Posted - 03/28/2008 : 12:11:08
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Well it happened to me.
I had to leave work early to get my daughter, who was sent home from daycare with diarrhoea.
So I picked her up a little after 10:00 A.M. from my wife's office, and of course decided to stop by my primary source bank for my weekly penny pick-up.
Luckily for me I had only ordered 24 boxes this week, not my usual 50. Because as soon as I started taking them out to the van (I get to drive the van when I have the kids) I noticed that all of the pennies visible through the holes in the boxes were very very shiny.
Well of course I can't refuse to take them, so I loaded all 24 boxes into the van, drove the two miles home, during which time my daughter drifted off into her morning nap.
I got out the postal scales, started weighing the boxes in my carport, and sure enough every single one weighed in at 14.2 lbs. According to my calculations, with a zinc penny weighing 2.5 grams, 2,500 of them weighs in at 13.77 lbs. I guess counting the weight of the box and the wrapping paper 14.2 lbs is enough to account for the extra 3.1% of weight.
So I loaded up 23 boxes (I'm keeping one as I think they are all brand new uncirculated 2008's) back into the van, drove the 2 miles to a branch of my dump bank, and turned them back in.
BUT there is a bright side. At my dump bank I explained that I collected wheat pennies and that's why the new zincs were useless to me. I mentioned that if they had any other boxes or bags of pennies they wanted to get rid of I would take those.
Lo and Behold I managed to score $400 worth of older boxes (at least there are the dull pennies showing through) and a $50 customer bag of pennies! So the week is not a total waste.
Now I have to figure out how to keep this from happening again. Hopefully this is just the time of year that the mint is releasing the new pennies and in a couple of weeks they will move through the system.
I think this afternoon though I'm going to the Fred's store where they have a Coinstar machine and see if I can get the name/number of the person who services it. If I can arrange to purchase the customer dumped pennies straight from a Coinstar machine that would take care of the problem of getting pure zinc from the bank.
So sad :(
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Sorting In Northwest Mississippi |
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misteroman
Administrator
USA
2565 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2008 : 12:22:55
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I noticed out of 4 of my boxes from the one bank there were alot of 08's on the end.There were 3 rolls with wheats on the end but not really planning on my usual 30% #'s out of this box.
Derek |
Buying CU cents!!!! Paying 1.2 unlimited amounts wanted. Can pick up if near Ohio area. |
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73 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2008 : 12:53:04
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| Coinstar machine coins all go in one box,they are not sorted. |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2008 : 13:24:21
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It could always be worse. At least you only got a "small" order. Let me know when you figure out a way to keep it from happening. Sounds like you made the best of it. You had the presence of mind to check the weights on the postal scale so you didn't have to open all those rolls and run them through the Ryedale, then bag them up to return. A standard Brinks box of zinc weighs about 6390 grams. I'll let somebody else convert that into pounds. Sounds like you did a great swap too, and you might have developed a new source bank.
You aren't the first one of us to get skunked and you won't be the last. You just tied my record for the biggest one day complete skunk. Hope niether one of us is the one that sets the new record. |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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moboman
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2555 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2008 : 00:19:01
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| Are the 2008-p out yet? I have yet to get a single 2008. I've gone through numerous boxes from brinks,and the other armor car companies, as well as CWR's. |
"99% of all lawyers give the rest of them a bad name" 
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2008 : 00:24:55
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| Yes, they are out. You usually don't see many new pennies in Brinks rolls. Usually you see the new ones in paper wrapped bank rolls from Loomis or one of the other services. |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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misteroman
Administrator
USA
2565 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2008 : 00:58:34
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I did get 2 brinks boxes so far of 08's.Also 3 of the mwr as well
Derek |
Buying CU cents!!!! Paying 1.2 unlimited amounts wanted. Can pick up if near Ohio area. |
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WilliamC
Penny Collector Member
USA
471 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2008 : 14:52:32
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Well I managed to get $400 worth of pennies, mostly customer wrapped rolls, doing drive-buys today. This along with the $450 I purchased from my dump bank will be more than enough (along with my stack of 40 boxes at home) to keep me sorting for a while.
I've slowed down a bit over the last few days, helping out more at home and such. Still on track to do $500 a week, but $1,000 a week will be difficult.
Hope the copper stays in circulation a while longer! |
Sorting In Northwest Mississippi |
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70 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2008 : 19:26:49
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I too had a skunk experience. I'm just getting started with this whole thing and my Ryedale will be here tomorrow, YIPPPEEEEE!, but I got 4 boxes last week from 2 different banks in town. They were all dated 3/14/07. Through the holes it looked like a good mixed batch, but after the first 5 rolls of hand sorting, I found 0 pre '82s and 2 '82s. My scale is loaned out at the moment so I couldn't do a double check of the box weights or even see if the 2 82s were copper. I didn't even open the other 3 boxes, but of the box that was open there were no pre 82s on the ends of the rolls either. I took them back and traded for customer bags instead.
Got a box today dated 2/8/08 and it seems to be my usual 20-25%. Not sure if there is any way to find out, but I think that, (at least here in CO), the "big boys" have actually started pulling the copper out of circulation before they box them up and send them back out.
Has anyone else gotten a good mix of pennies but no coppers in the batch, or did I hit a few unlucky boxes? |
"They that can give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin |
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70 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2008 : 19:49:57
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| correction: the skunk boxes were dated 3/14/08 not 07 |
"They that can give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin |
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WilliamC
Penny Collector Member
USA
471 Posts |
Posted - 04/03/2008 : 08:44:23
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To me it's a lot more troubling to find a box of pure zinc that is obviously a mixed lot of old and new coins. This does indicate that someone has done sorting for copper on them. Maybe you just got unlucky and someone's dumped pennies?
I really hope we don't see major copper pulls starting soon. It would be terrible for us hoarders. |
Sorting In Northwest Mississippi |
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WilliamC
Penny Collector Member
USA
471 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2008 : 07:18:27
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Just picked up 4 boxes from my regular bank last Friday.
There's copper in them again!
Seems like the new penny release of 2008 is over, at least in my part of the country. |
Sorting In Northwest Mississippi |
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24 Boxes Of Zinc In My Haul, 24 Boxes Of Zinc...
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