CALIFORNIA FAMILY'S MILLION-PENNY DILEMMA; SACKS OF COPPER COINS FOUND UNDER HOME
A California family has stumbled upon a surprising treasure hidden within the basement crawlspace of their Los Angeles house: over a million pennies. They made the remarkable discovery when they began cleaning out their father's former home in Pico-Union, Los Angeles.
The discovery has left the family with an intriguing dilemma, a champagne problem to say — what to do with such an enormous amount of money.
It's raining pennies
John Reyes, a realtor hailing from the Inland Empire area, and his wife, Elizabeth, were cleaning out the house that belonged to Elizabeth's father.
The house, dating back to the early 1900s, was believed to have once served as a bed-and-breakfast establishment.
Previously occupied by John's father-in-law, Fritz, and his brother — both German immigrants— the property had been a home for several decades. Following Fritz's passing and his brother's departure, the Reyes family took on the arduous task of clearing out the historic residence, intending to renovate it for future generations.
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As they delved deeper into the basement's cluttered recesses, John and Elizabeth unearthed loose pennies, old paper rolls disintegrating with age. However, the discovery didn't stop there. They stumbled upon crates, boxes, and numerous bank bags, containing more than a million pennies accumulated over decades.
The assortment of bank bags revealed intriguing details, with some labelled with names of defunct banks or ones unfamiliar to the Reyes family. The significance of their find gradually sank in, and they realized they were facing hundreds of thousands of pounds of copper pennies.
How many pennies are there exactly?
The pennies are copper and not the more common zinc variety introduced in the 1980s.
To estimate the full extent of their find, the family performed rough calculations, weighing the bags and extrapolating their contents. The conclusion was staggering — they conservatively estimated possessing at least 1 million pennies.
However, the challenge they confronted was deciding how to manage such an enormous collection effectively.
What are they going to do with all the pennies?
As per a Fox 5 report, initially, the idea of cashing out the pennies and putting the matter to rest seemed tempting.
The thought of utilising a Coinstar machine crossed their minds, but they swiftly discarded the notion due to the associated 8 per cent fee and the logistical challenge of transporting such an immense quantity of coins back to their home in Ontario. To explore alternative options, they reached out to several banks in Los Angeles, hoping to find a willing partner in handling the pennies.
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Their efforts, however, were met with unexpected obstacles. Wells Fargo, one of the banks they contacted, refused to accept the sizable influx of pennies, citing space constraints and expressing disbelief at the scale of the collection.
Finally, John Reyes decided to list the coins on OfferUp, a prominent online resale platform, setting an asking price of $25,000. If their estimate of 1 million pennies held true, the face value of the coins comes up to around $10,000.
The asking price of the collection thus surpasses the face value by more than double. "The value is in the uniqueness," says Reyes who believes that taking less than their full value would be a disservice to the ideals and principles that guided his father-in-law throughout his life.
Offers received thus far have primarily been for partial purchases. However, the family reportedly is determined to sell the entire collection rather than divide it.
(With inputs from agencies)
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2023-06-10T09:02:44Z dg43tfdfdgfd