Kicker: Penny millionnaire

NICK EICHER, HOST: You might remember old sayings such as “a penny saved is a penny earned,” and “watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” Well, a man in Los Angeles discovered this for himself. John Reyes, speaking with LA’s Fox 11:

JOHN REYES: This is an open bag. Now, here's the unique part and this is what I've been getting collectors that call me about the fact that these are lead sealed.

What’s going on here? Well, Reyes was clearing out his late father-in-law’s basement when he came across a pile of bank bags filled with pennies.

REYES: Boxes. Crates. It's about a million pennies.

That’s right. A MILLION pennies. Just move the decimal two places and you see that it’s $10,000 face value—and that’s without knowing whether any of the pennies are rare ones worth more than, well, a penny.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Must’ve weighed a ton, too.

EICHER: Well, literally. It was a little more than 2,000 pounds in weight. So quite a few trips up the stairs and he’ll need a heavy-duty pickup truck to take it to the bank.

REYES: I've had quite a few collectors tell me that this is something that should not be sold until we know what's going on.

REICHARD: Maybe that explains that coin shortage.

EICHER: Heads up.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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