After captivating the nation’s attention for weeks, a California family has successfully transferred ownership of their remarkable collection of one million copper pennies.
John and Elizabeth Reyes, who stumbled upon this astonishing hoard of valuable metal coins in Elizabeth’s late father’s home, have announced the completion of the sale, and the pennies have officially changed hands.
The impressive cache was discovered in the crawlspace of the historic Pico-Union residence, where Elizabeth’s father, Fritz, resided with his brother for many years. Following Fritz’s passing and his brother’s departure, the Reyes family, along with Elizabeth’s sister, cousin, and their spouses, began the process of cleaning and preparing the early 1900s-era house for renovations.
While clearing out the crawlspace, they stumbled upon boxes, crates, and bags filled with copper coins that Fritz had diligently stockpiled before the United States transitioned from copper to zinc pennies.
John Reyes shared that Fritz and his brother, who were German immigrants born during wartime, had firsthand experience with material shortages, which motivated Fritz to collect these copper pennies, envisioning their increasing value over time.
While the discovery was thrilling, the thousands of pounds of pennies posed a considerable challenge for the busy Reyes family members, who lacked the time to handle them. Consequently, John decided to list the coins for sale online.
Despite the coins’ face value being a mere $10,000, Reyes sought more than double that amount, hoping to attract a collector or investor willing to take a chance on this extraordinary assortment of thousands of pennies.
Since sharing their story with KTLA, Reyes’ account quickly went viral, generating numerous offers from interested parties. He confirmed to KTLA that a buyer had been selected, and the transaction had been successfully concluded.
Reyes did not disclose the exact sale price or elaborate on how the buyer managed to transport the substantial volume of coins from their undisclosed hiding place in the Inland Empire.