Posted on 02/02/2013 11:24:07 AM PST by BenLurkin
We'd been looking up options and were thinking about being green when I said we should just tile the floor in pennies," Lange, a entrepreneur and self-described design freak, says.
Belden wasn't completely on board at first, but before she could put her two cents in, the project off and running.
"I came home one day and found a small corner was done, so I thought 'I guess we're doing it,'" she recalled.
Thus began four months of painstaking work they dubbed "pennying," which involves laying down a special glue that acts like grout and individually placing the pennies heads up on the floor of the 380 square-foot room.
An estimated 59,670 pennies were used to completely cover the floor, which was then sanded down to a shiny copper sheen and cemented in with a clear coat as smooth as a sheet of glass. They spent close to $1,000 on the project, which made for a lot of trips back and forth to the bank for more pennies. And created more than a few odd glances from the tellers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcchicago.com ...
The 1944 steel penny isn’t worth much. Unless there was something real unique about the minting.
It looks nice in the finished picture. After they put the glaze coat on top, it should be smooth and easy to clean.
It’ll certainly keep the slugs and snails out of their bedroom.
Quote:
“Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service. The United States Secret Service web address is www.secretservice.gov.”
Don’t know of any variety (error or otherwise) from that year. They do have a lower mintage than your typical circulated penny and show at $.85 each in MS65 in this year’s red book. If they aren’t taking up too much space, you might as well hold onto them as long as you can stand. A quick look of completed listings on ebay shows them going for about $6 a roll currently.
Pennies were 95% copper, 5% zinc in 1973. Copper skyrocketed that year, doubling in price from fifty cents a pound to a dollar a pound. So, those pennies contain more copper than current pennies, I suspect. There was mich discussion at that time regarding what sort of change needed to be made, to make pennies economical once more.
You might want to check value on mint uncirculated 1973 Lincoln pennies again, too. I’ve seen fifteen to thirty-five cents cited as a value, for example:
http://cointrackers.com/coins/13669/1973-lincoln-penny/
The 1944 steel penny isn’t worth much. Unless there was something real unique about the minting.”
Pennies were made out of steel in 1943. A few steel blanks were accidentally fed into the presses in 1944. They are extremely rare and worth much money.
For 1943, you'd be correct as these are not all that rare. But in 1944, steel pennies were not intended for release, which is why they are quite rare.
But if you are still not convinced and happen to have an authentic one lying around - let me know and I'll be happy to give you $20 and take it off your hands.
I’d say these are more “preserved”, than defaced.
Now when the next owner demos.....
LOL!! And the project will only cost about $3.00 in today's dollars!
Could you pave your floor with 25¢ pieces and call it your living quarters?
Copper produces special healing powers. I read that somewhere. /sarc
If you read it on the internet, it must be true!
thank you both for the input. I saw the 35 cent thing in the blue book. I will just pass them down to my grand kids. Even though I have several rolls of new ones, that is not enough money for me to fool with at this time. Aloha
I pity these fools - as a young couple, we had much more fun with our floors ;~)
As to the 1943 steel penny. I've got a couple, but they all seem to be pitch black. A 1944 would be extraordinarily valuable, as you said. This couple is stupid if they sealed that in their floor.
yes, the steel pennies are worth more. but some are worth more than others because some years made fewer, and some are rare because of which mint produced them.
He was quite happy.
“Could you pave your floor with 25¢ pieces and call it your living quarters?”
Absolutely.
The peril would be in the girlfriend getting a reputation as a two-bit whore!
$596.70, I presume!
which made for a lot of trips back and forth to the bank for more pennies. And created more than a few odd glances from the tellers.
Pfft. They couldn't just get another pickle jarful out of the closet?
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