Bank places 100 'lucky pennies' across US worth $1,000 each

Betallsports · Oct 21, 2016

DETROIT — Stopping to pick up a stray penny off the ground may not seem worth the effort, yet one bank is trying to change that mindset by placing 100 fake pennies across the country worth $1,000 apiece.

Ally Bank says it is hoping to encourage Americans to look for opportunities to save through its "Lucky Penny" promotion, which launched this week. The lucky pennies carry a copper color like real pennies, but feature the Detroit-based bank's logo instead of Abraham Lincoln's head. The flip side of the coin lists its value at 100,000 cents.

The pennies have been placed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Miami, Denver, Detroit, San Diego, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas.

The coins can be redeemed online until the end of the year.

HacheMan · Oct 21, 2016

Cool story & kudos to that bank

Seymour · Oct 21, 2016

In the 80's the government was fazing out large denomination bills like $500, $1000 and $10,000 - my friend was buddies with a manager - people would bring in the bills and deposit them - the manager would call my friend and he would come in and pay face value - he had all kinds of $1000 bills and three 10K bills - I believe the 10K bills are worth over 30K now

99steak · Oct 21, 2016

This can back fire. Only a matter of time before crooks mint a replicate of these pennies. I hope each lucky penny has some secret code or bar code somewhere to trace to the origin. but in the picture it just looks plain with no security features.

carlspackler · Oct 21, 2016

LOL. The bank is counterfeiting money openly.

Hamilbet · Oct 22, 2016

Such a great campaign for them.

Hamilbet · Oct 22, 2016

99steak said:
This can back fire. Only a matter of time before crooks mint a replicate of these pennies. I hope each lucky penny has some secret code or bar code somewhere to trace to the origin. but in the picture it just looks plain with no security features.

I read that there are security features but not saying what they are to the general public.