A family in Los Angeles (California) had a millionaire discovery.
John Reyes, his wife Elizabeth, the woman's sister and a cousin, and their respective spouses were cleaning the house where Elizabeth's father, Fritz, had lived in Pico-Union, a neighborhood of the city.
In addition to Fritz, his brother, both German immigrants, had also lived in the building. According to the family, after Fritz's death, his brother had decided to move elsewhere.
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Reyes said both men had a habit of "putting everything away" and that it had taken the family years to clean the building and then begin renovation work.
To that end they were working, when they were struck by an unusual number of pennies scattered on the floor of the basement of the house.
The pennies were found in dozens of bags like those used by banks. Getty Images
The discovery initially led them to several boxes filled with these coins. And that discovery led them to another bigger one: dozens of bags that banks use to store change, station KTLA reported.
The family's first reaction was disbelief.
Then they inspected the coins more closely, they noticed that the cents were copper and not zinc, as the current ones (the United States changed the metal with which the cents are made in 1982).
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In addition, and that was a great surprise, after weighing the bags, they determined that it was at least one million cents.
It was impossible for Reyes and his wife to bring the unusual shipment back home to Ontario, California, so they decided — after months of searching unsuccessfully for a bank that would accept so many pennies at once — to put the find up for sale on the OfferUp platform, where users put a wide variety of merchandise up for sale.
The initial offer: $25,000 for all cents.
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So far, Reyes and his wife have only received partial offers to buy, but no one has wanted to acquire the entire shipment.
Reyes believes that "its value is unique" and that to accept less than it is worth would go against the principles of his father-in-law, who kept the coins in the first place.
With information from USA Today