At first I just threw them out, then feeling guilty about it, I estarted to separate them along with my silver. Then when I had about 15lbs of pennies, I cashed them in and bought myself an ice cream cone. I am now at the stage where I just tell the cashiers to leave the pennies in there.
yeah, i usually never accept 'em as change but if it's 2pence than i keep it or maybe drop it into a charity can.
I trade them for dimes. I started saving dimes from my pocket change just as a lark about 2 years ago after reading about a guy who had been saving pennies for 20 years. I roll them in rollers and put them in boxes in my garage. I put the boxes on a pallet because I figured one day it would be so heavy I'd have to move it with a forklift. I have over $6000 in dimes already. Don't save pennies ...save your dimes. Ten times the value at half the weight.
I started saving quarters in a Hinckley and Schmidt 5 gallon jug while in kindergarten. By the time I was 18 I had >$16,000 in that jug. I opened a sub account in my parent's Oppenheimer account with the funds.
Into the misc. change jug they go where I put all my shrapnel. At the end of the year I give it to a friend that works at a local bank and she dumps it into the change sorter and brings me back the cash. After I cash it all in I head to the local poker room. Last year I had 250 bucks (much of it pennies).
I throw all of my change in a jar and when it gets full I take the contents to the Coinstar machine. Click on this link to see another man's way of dealing with pennies. http://www.yikers.com/video_the_ass_pennies_story.html
Screw Coinstar with that nasty rip they take. There is a Commerce 4 blocks away, I just go there and cash in my change. Pick up a few pens also, what a deal! It's about 50 bucks each time I go there. I then invest that money in the Sticky Icky fund. Very high returns.
For some years ago Sweden arranged a national charity event, when they decided to abandon the 10 Ãre coin. (1 swedish krona is 100 öre) People could either put the money in their bankaccounts and by that get rid of thier soon to be worthless 10 öres, or give their 10 öre coins to a special chairty that was broadcasted on television. I think they got quite a lot of money! We have the same problem here in euro-zone. Those 1 and 2 cents are so unneccessary. Countries like Finland don't even use them at all! I empty my pocket and put ALL of my coins in my piggybank when I come home. When it is full i go to the bank and put it in my account. It can sometimes be quite a lot if there's a lot of 2 and 1 euro coins in there!