I put my change in an old glass orange juice bottle. I call it my cat’s allowance since I fill it and buy things for him. Anyway, this last Saturday I cashed it in at Coinstar (8.9 cents per dollar) and got back just over $100 (total value was about $110 before their cut). It is a 2 quart bottle. I have consistently gotten between $100-150 per trip with this particular change bottle. I typically also have more quarters in it than pennies if that helps any. My guess would be that you would get about $250 per gallon if you put change in it like me. Oh, it also takes me about 8 months to fill it up.
I think Smeghead and everyone who’s guessing high amounts are on the right track. My dad puts his money in a five-gallon water jug and every year he cashes it in before going on vacation. He doesn’t come close to filling it up (maybe about a 1/3 full) and it’s always around $600-$800.
If we’re guessing time, that’s a whole other calculation. It usually takes me about 2 and a half years to fill up my 3-liter jar, but my change accumulation rate is probably well below the national average. Extrapolation to five gallons is left as an exercise for the reader.
And it usually takes about a half hour to dump the damn thing into Coinstar.
Just a thought, measure the volume of a roll of each coin. Measure the volume of the 5-gallon bucket. Divide appropiately. This should give a reasonable range of values.
Also, there’s a drink machine where I work. Late last year, I discovered that the change had not been emptied in about 4 months, so I decided to tackle it since change was actually falling out og the machine. The metal box that holds the change is about 4"x6"x8" (192 cubic inches) and I ended up counting (and rolling) about $700 in quarters, dimes, and nickels.
Based on the U.S. Mint’s 1999 production figures and the specifications for the coins’ sizes and weights, we can figure out the percentage of space that each coin occupies in the bucket, and therefore the values (the 2000 production figures include a very high number of Sackie dollars that I don’t think is reflective of actual circulation). Assuming there is a 20% empty space between coins (a total wag), my calculation shows the bucket to contain $4721.51 and weigh 442.7 lbs.
Try putting a dollar a day into a container, it has no real stress on your wallet, I’ve been doing that for a little while and i’ve got 50 some dollars already. I’ll do that for a couple years.
The lid is still on the bucket. In fact, I super-glued it on there and then duct-taped it; not to discourage my friends, but to discourage Mrs. Rastahomie :D. I merely cut a little hole, about 1 1/2 inches by 1/2 inch, to pour the change into.
Yeah, the weight of the bucket & coins is a concern, but if all else fails I can borrow my stepfather’s dolly.
As for me- I should fill it up slightly faster than yer average Joe. You see, my night job is delivering pizza, and I generally come home each night with a buck and half to two bucks or thereabouts in change, and that’s on a slow night.
Rasta, having used an upside down bucket as a step stool, and seeing what 220 lbs spread out on size 11 feet does to it. I would not recommend even trying to transport the change in the bucket. Unless the bottom is completely supported, the weight of the coins may bust the bottom out. Oh, and my guess $3,333.33
Five Gallons, of course (there you go Ginger). When I read the thread title I thought it was some sort of lame joke a long the lines of, “what weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks.”
Anyways, I used to work at an ice cream parlor, and at the end of the day we’d split the tips, and put all the pennies in a five gallon jug and throw a big party with the cash (um, change) once or twice a year. I think it totaled about 200-250 dollars. In pennies.
And I don’t know how we lifted it, it was physically impossible to move by hand by the time it was full.
Pennies: 43% of coins, 33% of volume, 14163 coins, $141.63
Nickels: 9% of coins, 11% vol, 3026 coins, $151.30
Dimes: 17% of coins, 10% vol, 5566 coins, $556.66
Quarters: 32% of coins, 45% vol, 10541 coins, $2635.25
For le grande total of $3484.84. But alas, that assumes perfect packing, which is not the case. I’ll take Philistine’s guess and say 20%. So my guess is $2787.
(Key assumption is that you get every cent value between 0 and 99 equally in your change, which is fair due to tax. So you can just work out the coins in all 100 combos and get the percentages.)
