About nine months ago, John Reyes encountered something completely unexpected while helping his wife clean up his father’s 1900s house.
Reyes was rummaging through the basement of her late father-in-law’s house when she found loose change tied up in rolls of loose paper. He kept searching, eventually finding dozens of bank bags containing copper pennies.
Reyes, 41, an Inland Empire real estate agent, estimated the bag contained about a million pennies, equivalent to $10,000 in face value.
“There are banks, too. [named] Either you’ve never heard of it or it’s on a bag that doesn’t exist anymore,” he added.
Reyes and her family originally intended to take the pennies to the bank and exchange them for dollars’ worth. He called Wells Fargo Bank in Los Angeles, but the manager told him there wasn’t even enough room for all the coins. The manager told Mr. Reyes that he should bring about $300 worth of pennies at a time, but Mr. Reyes said it was impossible because the pennies were all wrapped in rolls of paper. Stated.
Reyes called a local bank and spoke to the branch manager, who seemed incredulous.
“I showed her the pictures and she said, ‘I’ve worked with Wells Fargo all my life and I’ve never seen anything like this.’ there could be,” he said.
The U.S. Mint originally made pennies of pure copperHowever, due to the need for copper during World War II, from 1943 penny coins were made of zinc-coated steel. Since 1982, pennies have been made primarily of zinc.
Reyes considered launching a survey of penny hunters on TikTok to determine the exact value of the vintage coins, but the family decided it would be better if someone picked them all up.
He listed the coin on the resale website OfferUp and asked for three times the value of the coin, or about $25,000 to $30,000. He said he received several offers from people who said he could receive a third or half of a penny.
The coins were hauled off by lorry and stored in an undisclosed location at the Inland Empire.
Reyes said his father-in-law Fritz and his younger brother immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1960s and were known as “war babies” because they were born during the war. Built in 1904, the house has seven bedrooms, three kitchens, and multiple bathrooms. Reyes said he believes it was once used as a guest house.
Reyes said Fritz likely started collecting pennies after the U.S. started switching from copper to zinc.
“There are German immigrants who came in very young, and they were two great people who believed that anything of value should be owned,” Reyes said. “They don’t believe much in anything other than the value of precious metals.”
Fritz and his brother have lived in this house for over 50 years. Fritz used to work as a butcher in Hollywood, but he died ten years ago and his brother lived in the house until a few years ago. The house has remained pristine ever since.
Reyes said the penny could be useful to the family, as the house is currently being renovated for rent.
