December 12, 2007: 100 Miillion pennies at Rockefeller Center NYC
 

http://cellar.org/2007/pennyharvest1.jpg

When I saw copyrighted AP wire service shots of this, I realized that somebody in flickr probably had a few shots as well, marked as public. What a way to get around copyright problems!

http://cellar.org/2007/pennyharvest2.jpg

This set of photos from flickr user mgc1005 show the Common Cents 17th annual Penny Harvest, "a national educational program designed to teach children about their value as contributors to society." Apparently the kids collect them for charity, and they've collected 600,000 pounds of them.

http://cellar.org/2007/pennyharvest3.jpg

They take up 30 feet by 165 feet of space.

http://cellar.org/2007/pennyharvest4.jpg

But some coin people say the word "penny" is not appropriate for the US Cent, and that the only true "penny" is the British penny. One piece of evidence: the plural of these things is "cents", not "pence" as the Brits say.

That's a lot of pennies. Don't they understand that they have paper currency now in order to make it more convenient to carry around large sums of money?

"Now we know how many cents it takes to fill Rockefeller Hall.
I'd love to turn you on."
-The Beatles

[QUOTE But some coin people say the word "penny" is not appropriate for the US Cent, and that the only true "penny" is the British penny. One piece of evidence: the plural of these things is "cents", not "pence" as the Brits say.[/quote]

Your own title calls them "pennies", which is the correct plural of penny. The penny is the coin; a cent is how much it's worth.

The American Heritage Dictionary agrees:
In the United States and Canada, the coin that is worth one cent.

Oh yeah! I stand corrected.

Practically everyone I know has stopped saying "pence" now (like Brits-wise). Probably because it sounds so old fashioned. It's just "p". I like it. It sounds cute. Lol. Anyway. It looks pretty cool. I'd love to go and see it. I'm going over there next October for an exchange trip with school but it probably won't be on by then will it? I don't know. I've never been before. Or heard anything about what it is for that matter. Still, cool post.

Very cool idea... wonder if anyone's tried taking some?

PS -

You didn't really eliminate the copyright problem, as these photos are still owned by that Flickr user. You just took photos from someone who isn't as likely to sue. :neutral:

I'm thinking about going next week to see the Rockefeller tree (for the first time ever!). If I get there, I'll post some free pics.

Yeah, I thought "this photo is public" on flickr applied to the copyright section of the photo page. But it doesn't, it applies to who can view it.

Well get us some non-copyrighted images then sir!

About 500 barrels of clear epoxy would make a great paper weight.

Am I the only one with a Scrooge McDuck-ish urge to go swimming in that lot?

I wonder what it cost to ship 600,000 pounds of pennies from where they were collected to Rocky Center?

Perhaps a pretty penny?:D

"cost a pretty penny"
cost (someone) a pretty penny
to be very expensive. That diamond ring must have cost him a pretty penny.

Fuck...I pity the fool who has to roll all those.

I rolled about $500 in pennies a few weeks back here. (Helpin my dad cash in his old change jar.) Lemme tell you, as much fun as it sounds...

it isn't.

If you use the advanced search option on flickr, you can restrict your search results to only show images with a Creative Commons license. (To be pedantic, these pictures are still copyrighted, but the copyright owner grants the right to use the image for certain purposes). I do this for most of my pictures on flickr.

In this case, the following picture by flickr user somewhat frank is the only one I found:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2185/...17d54792_m.jpg