In a surprising turn of events, John Reyes, a realtor from southern California, and his family stumbled upon a peculiar conundrum during the process of cleaning out his father-in-law’s Los Angeles home. Hidden away in a cramped crawlspace, they uncovered a cache of over 1 million copper pennies. The discovery has left the family wondering what to do with this unexpected treasure trove, potentially worth far more than its face value.
The Reyes family believes that the century-old home, once owned by John’s father-in-law, Fritz, had been utilized as a bed and breakfast. Both Fritz and his brother, immigrants from Germany, resided in the house for many decades until Fritz’s passing, after which his brother relocated. As the family embarked on renovating the property for modern use, they were confronted with the arduous task of sorting through a multitude of accumulated belongings spanning several years.
During their endeavor to declutter the house, the family encountered a crawlspace teeming with miscellaneous items, necessitating them to kneel down to reach its deepest corners. Among the possessions were numerous crates, boxes, and coin bags brimming with an undisclosed quantity of copper pennies dating back to decades past. Remarkably, some of these pennies originated from banks that no longer exist, lending an air of nostalgia to the discovery.
Intrigued by the find, the family had a sample of the pennies tested and confirmed their copper composition. With an estimated weight of the bags, they surmised the total count to be around 1 million pennies. However, capitalizing on their value has proven to be a hurdle. Initially considering Coinstar as an option, the family was dissuaded by the accompanying 8% fee. Subsequently, attempts to engage banks proved futile, as the sheer volume exceeded their vault capacities. Additionally, within this vast collection, there could potentially be rare coins worth millions on their own.
The laborious process of extracting the coins from the house proved to be a monumental task. The family meticulously transferred the contents of the crawlspace, bag by bag, up the stairs and into trucks, a process that took hours. Laden with the weight of the bank bags, the trucks’ suspensions visibly strained, prompting the family to undertake a slow journey back to Reyes’ home in Ontario, California.
After months of grappling with this unexpected windfall, the Reyes family has decided to pass on the responsibility of dealing with the pennies to another interested party. They have listed the entire hoard for sale on OfferUp, a popular resale platform, with an asking price of $25,000. The value, as Reyes explains, lies in the uniqueness of the find. Though partial offers have surfaced, no prospective buyer has yet come forward to acquire the entire collection.
