…when you can no longer find pennies in supermarket parking lots.
No, it won’t be because there’s anything you can buy for a penny. It will be because preppers are packing them into shotgun shells, lead and steel balls having become unaffordable.
Sep 28 2024
You Will Know It’s Over…
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Given the aerodynamics of unstabilized discs this practice must make for a piss poor pattern beyond a couple of feet. Probably makes an interesting sound though!
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Ah, no, I left out that the pennies get cut up with a tin snips. Apologies.
That makes it more interesting. Is there any certain pattern you cut them into?
By the way, if you aren’t already aware, the theory is colorfully illustrated (if not analyzed) in Tom Hanks’ movie, News of the World. Highly recommended.
Won’t work. Years ago, I lost the trivet to my Pyrex coffee pot. Solution: I put four pennies down on the electric element to keep the pot slightly off and heat the water. A minute later, I had four tiny smoking, liquid masses on the element. I had higher expectation for American coinage. Shoot somebody with pennies you’ll just burn him.
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Nope. I’ve already tried it. It works as well as buckshot.
Well, maybe so, but you won’t be able to make coffee afterwards.
Before late 1982, copper pennies were made of 95% copper, and 5% other metals. The exceptions were the steel pennies in 1943, during WWII, when copper was scarce.
So, sort your change. Save the older pennies for ammunition, sell the steel pennies to collectors, and roll and turn in the newest ones for cash at banks/merchants.
Continue saving your pennies, always trading in the nearly worthless new ones, and make a point of making small purchases that will result in a few cents in change. Each time, after you get home, save those pennies with higher copper content.
Also, keep an eye out for those older TVs that were common before flatscreens. Offer to take it off the owner’s hands. Likely, you will get it free or even given a few bucks for the work to carry the heavy item out and take it to the dump.
Inside those TVs is a hell of a lot of copper wire. That can be used in electronic projects, or melted down for shot. The same goes for a lot of old tech – they used a lot of wire and other metals in their manufacture.
Spend a little time, and learn how to harvest scrap metal from throwaways.
If you live near a lake or river, a metal detector is a good investment. The old sinkers were lead, and a little time scrounging will likely unearth quite a few of them. If you pick up money or jewelry, all to the good. If there are wedding rings, save them. They have a marked quantity of gold in them, and it’s a more portable form of currency, should TSHTF.
Other good places to look for money – under old bleachers, near old ferryboat landings (a lot of the guys returning home after imbibing may have dropper a few higher value coins near the shallows, as they fumbled for change).