Source: www.reddit.com
Wondering if anyone can get a good estimate of how many pennies are in these two jars? They are standard water jugs in which my father has been collecting pennies since the 80's. One is full, the other about 1/5.
When I read such articles, I like to participate in this part and see how I would have compared to others. In my childhood, there were such things more often, where you could estimate how many coins were in a large container. However, my parents never allowed me to participate in such estimations, as they were almost always associated with a competition where you had to provide your name and address, in case you had guessed correctly.
My estimate for this post would have been $400. Now, the internet is the internet, and sometimes you already know what to expect before you even go into the comments section. Someone will have made a mathematical approximation. The first comment does exactly that.
The user zabumafu369 calculated the following:
A quick search says packing efficiency of loose coins is 60%. A 5 gallon jug is 1155 cubic inches. A penny is 0.027 cubic inches. You say the other is about one-fifth full, so you have 1.2 jugs. [(1155×0.6)÷0.027]×1.2=30800, or $308.00.
It's for things like this that I happily pay my internet bill. The fact that "packing efficiency of loose coins" is even a term, TIL. Now, the post becomes even more interesting for me: The user zabumafu369 calculates how the investment would have turned out if the poster's grandfather (OP: TiffaniJohnson), instead of putting 10¢ per week into the gallon jug, had invested in AT&T stocks. Value: $1266. How does the author arrive at 10¢ per week? According to the OP, the grandfather has been saving the coins since the '80s, which for about $308 over this time, works out to just under 10¢ per week.
Because the internet brings people together, another user comes into play here: Huge-Objective-7208:
If they bought NVIDIA in 1999 for 82 cents with the $75 they had it would be worth $55,000
What an incredible value. I think I speak for everyone when I say we have all seen what could have become today of a few euros in Bitcoin at the right time. Even small investments can pay off at some point, you just have to be lucky. But you can have some influence on luck by getting involved with things and responding appropriately.
Some of my family members would prefer, like the grandfather in this post, to save money at home and individually, rather than investing it. Such a thing often brings the need for discussion and bad mood to the dinner table, and for the few times I see my family in a year, there are certainly better topics of conversation. But that's what the internet is for, there are forums and platforms like this one where you can exchange ideas with other people. I actually became aware of this platform through a post in /r beermoneyglobal. I'm curious to see how I'll get along here.