Imagine stumbling upon a collection of 1 million pennies. That's exactly what happened to John Reyes and his wife while they were cleaning out her late father's former residence in
Los Angeles.
During the process of renovating the home located in the Pico-Union neighborhood, the family found the pennies stored in a crawlspace in the basement, as reported by KTLA.
Reyes, his wife Elizabeth, her sister, her cousin, and their spouses have been diligently working on cleaning out the house to prepare it for renovations. The property had been occupied for many years by Elizabeth's father, Fritz, and his brother, who were German immigrants. After Fritz passed away and his brother moved away, the family decided to clear out the accumulated belongings.
As they cleaned, they initially stumbled upon loose pennies, which led to the discovery of boxes, and eventually, they uncovered multiple bank bags filled with the coins.
Reyes expressed the family's astonishment at the find, emphasizing that Elizabeth's father and uncle had kept everything. Due to their busy schedules, it took them several years to make progress in cleaning the house.
Upon closer inspection, the family confirmed that the pennies were made of copper, not zinc, indicating that they predated the U.S. switch to zinc pennies in 1982.
To assess the quantity, they weighed the bags and estimated that there were at least 1 million pennies in total.
Reyes initially considered taking the pennies to a Coinstar machine for counting but changed his mind due to the 8% fee and the logistics of transporting such a heavy load all the way to Ontario, California.
After struggling to find a bank that would accept such a large number of pennies, Reyes decided to list the coins on the popular resale app and website, OfferUp. The family is seeking $25,000 for the collection.
While they have received offers for parts of the collection, they have yet to find someone willing to take all the pennies off their hands.
For Reyes, the value lies not just in the monetary worth but in the uniqueness of the find, which honors his father-in-law's principles. Photo by Roman Oleinik, Wikimedia commons.