A U.S. Family Faces a Dilemma After Inheriting 1 Million Coins Worth 13 Million Won

Attempted to Exchange Cash at Bank but Rejected
Possibility of Bill Containing 'Gangcheol Penny' Worth Hundreds of Millions

A story about an American man who discovered dozens of bags of money while organizing his late father-in-law's house but found himself in a dilemma is gaining attention.

Money bags found at John Reyes' father-in-law's house
[Photo by NBC News, YouTube]

According to the Washington Post on the 14th (local time), John Reyes (41), a real estate agent in California, found dozens of bags filled with 1-cent (penny) coins in the basement while cleaning the house of his father-in-law who passed away last fall.

He estimated the number of coins to be around one million, which amounts to about $10,000 (approximately 13 million KRW).

However, since pennies are rarely used in the U.S. nowadays, the Reyes family was troubled about how to handle the coins.

They considered using a coin exchange machine to convert the coins into cash, but the roughly 8% fee discouraged them from doing so.

As an alternative, they loaded the bags of money onto a truck and visited a bank, but were rejected due to insufficient storage space in the bank's vault.

Reyes then went to his main bank, explained the situation, and showed photos of the bags of coins. A bank employee told him, "There might be pennies worth a million dollars," and advised him to look carefully.

John Reyes being interviewed
Photo by NBC News on YouTube

The U.S. Mint makes 1-cent coins from copper, but during World War II, copper was a critical material, so in 1943, pennies were made from steel coated with zinc.

The 'steel pennies' made at that time are highly valuable, having been traded for $82,500 (about 105 million KRW) in 1996 and $300,000 (about 380 million KRW) in 2022, which is why the bank employee recommended searching for such coins.

However, Reyes told the media, "The whole family gathered to sort the coins, but we could only identify 1-2%," indicating it was difficult to find valuable coins.

He added, "I heard there are many people who collect valuable pennies," and said, "I want to sell the pennies my father-in-law collected to someone who knows their value." As the news spread, hundreds of inquiries flooded in within days.

Later, it was reported that he was in talks with a buyer willing to purchase the coins for $25,000 (about 32 million KRW), more than three times their face value of $8,000 (about 10 million KRW), updating on his situation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.