Re: COIN COUNTER AT BANK SEPERATES COPPER PENNIES
Silver coins weren't worth twice face value until the 60's. When they were, people started hoarding and most were taken out of circulation VERY quickly- There is also nothing to say that it wasn't government taking it out, also.
Now that silver is at $13 per ounce, supplying banks with machines that can be calibrated strictly enough to pull maybe one or two silver coins per $100 in halves is not going to be worth it.
But people are NOT, in general, saving their pre- 82's. But they are worth 2x face value. 30% or so of pennies are still copper, and there are MILLIONS of pounds of copper pennies out there. Sure, it may be tough to make shipping and sending pennies profitable, but when you already have a fed shipping system to banks and such, you do not need to change much to get a bag or two per bank back to the fed.
Or could it be as simple as the government trying to avoid us from starting to hoard, due to the mere expense and difficulty of replacing the pennies with more pennies?
Please continue...