In article , Myown Uncle
wrote:

On 09 Mar 2003 23:45:23 GMT, c (TOM KAN PA) wrote:

Take 'em to a bank? Doesn't work, at least in the Pittsburgh, PA area.
I have around $100 worth, rolled and wrapped. A few years ago there was
a penny
shortage. One local bank offered a $5 gift certificate at a local restaurant
for $50 worth of pennies. Being a DA, I didn't turn mine in. Now I wish
I had.
So, any suggestions

Gee,
In my country (the U.S.A.), pennies are legal tender. A bank doesn't
have any choice but to take them. It may be different with other
institutions such as a savings and loan or a credit union, but a
national bank is required to honor the currency. A penny is currency.

Many US banks charge a fee to machine-count & machine-roll pennies, & will
not accept pennies that are not rolled. So if you show up with a sack or a
jar of pennies, they will not count them for you unless you pay them, &
will refuse to take them if you refuse to pay for them to handle them. It
would be interesting to test the federal law on this with a class action
suit against the banking industry, but somehow I suspect their influence
in government vastly exceeds our individual rights, so as legal tender
pennies will continue to be discounted via fees at bankers' whims.

I've heard it costs more than a penny for the government to make a penny &
the mint would like to phase them out, but it's politically unacceptable
cuz people like the idea that pennies exist even if they don't like
pennies.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/