California Couple Sells One Million Pennies Found Cleaning Relative's Home

Euro coins stacked in different positions. Currency of the European Union.

Photo: Moment RF

California realtor John Reyes and his wife were cleaning out a loved one's former residence when they came across a shocking discovery. As they began to take inventory of each room inside the cluttered, historic house, they came to a crawlspace with something very unique inside. According to KTLA, upon entering the crawlspace, the couple found a few "deteriorated" paper rolls with pennies inside. As they continued to clean, they noticed crates, boxes, and large bank bags filled with pennies.

What started as a cleaning project that spanned several years, slowly turned into a penny investigation. KTLA mentioned that many of these pennies were very old; so old in fact, that the banks that created them no longer exist today.

After dragging pounds and pounds of pennies from the crawlspace, Reyes and his wife opened one of the bags to examine the coins. They noticed that the pennies were made from copper, meaning that their origins dated back to the 1970s before the U.S. switched to zinc pennies in the 1980s. When it came to getting rid of the million pennies, the couple called bank after bank who rejected their offer simply because they couldn't take in that many pennies. They ended up listing the historic coins online and have since received "thousands" of offers. Reyes mentioned that he received so many inquires about the gigantic stash of pennies that it was overwhelming.

“Because of the influx of messages that I received, it was just overwhelming.” Years after the discovery, the penny collection finally sold!

The name of the person who purchased the pennies, and the exact price that they were purchased for was not disclosed, but Reyes assured that the buyer was someone who was genuinely interested in the value of the find.


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