What is Digg?130 Comments
- DoodlesMcPooh, on 10/12/2007, -5/+621. Collect pennies
2. Take them across the border
3. Melt them down
4. ?????
5 Profit - Sell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+57I have a penny listed on eBay with a buy it now price of 4 cents if anyone is interested.
- sideshowRAHEEM, on 10/12/2007, -3/+52*in a prison cell*
Cell mate 1: What are you in for.
Cell mate 2: I melted down 20 pennies
Cell mate 1: bend over.
But seriously your right it is illegal for anyone besides the the government( The Secret Service specifically) to destroy any US currency. - WeeklyGeek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+46That means that you win at the Internet. Congratulations! You may leave now.
- Philodox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+43I remember I got in trouble in grade 8 for drawing a mustache on the Queen on the Canadian $2 bill. Lousy jerks, I should be able to draw a mustache on whoever I want.
- floridiot2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+34You paid $0.35 to list that auction. :>
- Onychophora, on 10/12/2007, -4/+37Anyone else looking forward to no more $9999.99!!! ads?
Here's to hoping marketing folks will decide that $9999.95 just doesn't have the same ring to it, and just saying $10,000.00, like normal people.
/not likely - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+35"The richest people share one Zodiac sign more than any other. Click to find out what it is! "
An ad smack dab in the middle of the post. And it's not even a working one! - guyinthechair, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27Melting pennies, web 1.0 style:
http://www.gizmology.net/stovetop.htm - bbobkins, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28In Australia we already have gotten rid of our 1c coin. And I can tell you *EVERYTHING* is $***.95 cents
- ftblguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Old. And untrue.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cent_(United_States_coin) ...
Mass of a penny = 2.5 grams
Composition of a penny = 97.6% zinc; 2.4% copper.
So how much metal is in a penny?
Zinc = 2.5g * 0.976 = 2.44 grams of zinc.
Copper = 2.5g * 0.024 = 0.06 grams of copper.
According to http://www.metalprices.com/ ...
Price of zinc = $3.808 per kilogram, or $0.003808 per gram.
Price of copper = $5.672 per kilogram, or $0.005672 per gram.
Worth of a penny = ($0.003808 * 2.44) + ($0.005672 * 0.06) = $0.00963184, less than one cent.
Now if you want to talk about older pennies (1962-1982), they were composed of 95% copper and 5% zinc and weighed 3.04 grams...
So that's 2.888 grams of copper and 0.152 grams of zinc. Which is worth...
Worth of an old penny = ($0.003808 * 0.152) + ($0.005672 * 2.888) = $0.016959552, not quite two cents, definitely nowhere close to 5 cents like the title of this story claims. - Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25Free shipping?
- vikingcoder, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17The article is inaccurate.
The current melt value of the US penny is $0.0095 - i.e. 95% of it's denomination
http://www.coinflation.com/ - rypaintD, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14no silly, $20 shipping.
- toby34a, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I, for one, would not like to pay $1.00 for a gumball at the mall. Just my two cents (which will be worth $0.10 soon...)
- neonic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Yeah, but isnt It illegal to melt the penny down into a form where you could sell the metal? I thought I read an article on digg like that before.
- TheChihuahua, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Why is it people always seem to be bitching about dupes, and yet I can honestly say I've never seen two stories the same. Perhaps because I don't spend my every waking hour on Digg?
Just deal with it. - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14A 5 to 1 increase in value is pretty big, any way you slice it. If you can melt $200,000 worth of pennies into $1 million worth of metal for less than $800,000, you're turning a profit.
If you're already in the business of coin collection and sorting (I'm looking at you, coinstar), then you've already got the hard part (collecting and sorting 20 million pennies) done. - grabraham, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Inaccurate.
From the article that the blog posting is from: [the * are mine]
A *potential* shortage of coins in the United States *could* mean all those pennies in your piggy bank *could* be worth five times their *current* value soon, says an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
last I checked .. earlier this month the current value was between 1.3 and 1.5 cents - masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -9/+17@brokekneck:
What are you talking about and why are people digging you up? The fact that Copper and Nickel are rising in price has nothing to do with US Dollars. It has to do with supply and demand. The penny as metal is worth more than its coinage because the metals it is made from are, combined, worth more than 1¢ -- that has nothing to do with the US Dollars. - Borramakot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9He means that because our $ isn't based on gold, and isn't backed by anything anymore, inflation could easily become rampant. The penny is now worth $.05 partly because metal is more expensive now, but partly because that nickel just doesn't buy what it used to.
- zombiedepot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Smelting metals is fairly efficient, but separating the metals would take a little more knowledge and effort.
- OUChevelleSS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Besides the defacing money law, yes they passed a new law making it illegal to smelt the coins.
- steve693, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Regardless of their value, I'll continue to hurl to the parking lot ground any pennies I receive as change in protest of their uselessness.
- CBTF, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9It's not a good idea to give up all your physical cash for numbers in a computer.
- Razster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Just try not to Melt down ones that are actually worth more than $100, please!
1909-S can be worth any where from $500 to $1,000.00 DO NOT MELT! - kuribo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Just find a buyer willing to accept them in pre-smelted form.
- draebor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7All your base metals are belong to us...
- pixelmixer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7wait... how long is the memory span of a caterpillar?
- impulsiveboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Gotta spend money to make money.
- brokekneck, on 10/12/2007, -24/+29Well, still its a intresting read. Mainly cause the U.S. mint just made it illegal to melt penny cause they are worth more in metal form. This is cause our Dollar which is based on nothing is becoming worthless.
- Lokix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7It is illegal to melt coins down to their base metals in order to sell them for more money.
- screensnot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@draebor
The "All your base..." thing is so played out and not funny anymore.
Until just the right context comes around, and then it's funny as hell all over again.
Thanks for the laugh. - cbergeron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Sounds like a pump & dump. I bought gold last year and the year before, and I've never seen it trading as high as it is ($650/oz). Gold went up last year because of uncertainties with world relations. It tapered off, and it's since been steady just over $600. I _highly_ doubt it will go up to $800 this year. Might hit $700, but G is definitely on a downward turn this year.
I still hold gold (actual ingots, not stock), so trust me, I'd love to see it go north of $800, but the investor in me doesn't see it happening any time soon. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11bbobkins - You're totally full of *****! Everything is still $xxx.99 so the ***** can round up and steal 1c from you each time you buy an item/items.
I just bought some chicken to have for lunch and its price was $4.04 to safeway can round it up and pocket that extra cent! - duality, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7@nepawoods
Riiiiiight. Also, because my paycheck is small enough that I can't afford to buy a Ferrari, then my paycheck has everything to do with the market value of a Ferrari. - Salmar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Me too, but this one is the most ad filled POS yet. And I've got adblock plus going strong. Ads within the posts, on the top, on the side, on the bottom, and everywhere between... pathetic site
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+13All of the smart investors are jumping into gold, with good reason. I bet gold will hit $800/oz easily this year.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5brokeneck...basing currecny on gold does not stop inflation. Gold is not inherently valuable either.
- rugger, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6People always get excited about melting down thousands of pennies to profit, but no one ever mentions the cost of melting that penny into something that you could sell. I don't know how much it would cost but with the opportunity cost also factored in I'm sure you would hardly profit.
- geonet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You mean a 1909-S VDB. A plain 1909-S isn't worth that much.
Also, hoard the pre 1982 pennies as they are mostly copper. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4he'll make it up in volume
side note: why not just make it out of plastic? its cheap, easy, long lasting, look at casino chips, those last forever. You couldn't use it in vending machines as it is not metal, that was an argument like 20 years ago against getting rid of it, but come on, have you ever even HAD a vending machines accept a penny nowadays?
side side note: won't gettting rid of the penny just make the nickel worthless, and the new penny? - digga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Funny peculiar, or funny ha-ha?
- digggggggggg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Even though destroying coin currency is illegal now, I still don't think that destroying bills is illegal since the paper value of a bill is far less than the printed face value. I don't see any logic in making destroying bills illegal, since it's essentially tearing up an IOU the Federal Reserve wrote out to us.
Check out the first question on this site:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2002/01/18money.html - Ocelot13, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5what about a quarter. it has 2 decimal places
- dinkumator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21st page of this is filled with ads. please bury this as the spam it is.
- Erfman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2***** the Penny! If someone makes ten dollars an hour and needs to take about a minute to deal with the pennies in a drawer then they were paid about 17 pennies to do it. Pennies are a threat to the American way! Nonetheless. I bet the Government will just out-source pennies to China and make them out of plastic.
- akinder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The homeless in your area commend you, 2 pennies will buy a whole pack of ramen!
- akinder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A guy that I graduated with died after climbing a pole and trying to strip live wires for the copper. He wasn't the smartest one in the bunch.
- EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"Anyone else looking forward to no more $9999.99!!! ads?"
That is unlikely to change if they did away with the penny. Gas stations are free to charger $2.129/gallon despite the fact there is no $0.001 coin (I just confused the hell out of Verizon). Vendors would further be unlikely to change prices because under proposed legislation to eliminate the penny only cash transactions would be rounded. -
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