4 ms·
The copper penny hoarders are beating you to it [0]. I met a "retired" guy who is driving around the US buying boxes of pennies from banks sorting them into cop
by stevenjgarner 4y ago
The copper penny hoarders are beating you to it [0]. I met a "retired" guy who is driving around the US buying boxes of pennies from banks sorting them into copper or not. He sells the sorted copper pennies to penny hoarders [1] and uses the non-copper pennies to spend at the Walmart NCR cash registers (they have to love him). He said he does not get rich but makes enough to get by.
We went out for a meal and discussed the feasibility of sorting the pennies by date using ML. The real gold mine would be that an AI approach might potentially identify numismatic grade pennies and really pay for itself.
[0] https://www.wikihow.com/Hoard-Copper-Pennies https://www.wikihow.com/Hoard-Copper-Pennies
[1] https://moneyning.com/make-money/how-to-cash-in-your-pennies-for-more-than-a-cent/ https://moneyning.com/make-money/how-to-cash-in-your-pennies...
- shrubble 4y agoThere are slight differences in weight between the 1982 and later, and the copper containing pennies. You don't need to use ML, you need a comparator of the kind found in 1000s of vending machines.
- OJFord 4y agoML's just a comparator where the designer doesn't (necessarily) understand the logic, right?
- loa_in_ 4y agoIf you have an universal constructor, yes, it's going to be a problem that solves itself. In practice you need a high fidelity weight sensor and a handful of transistors.
- dehrmann 4y agoWhat if we ran that ML on the etherium network?
- MichaelCollins 4y agoCodyslab sorting copper pennies using magnetic inductance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gM9mOk6eb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gM9mOk6eb8 Seems very simple and low tech.
- wil421 4y agoMy coworker is a sport shooter like you would see in the Olympics. His club noticed differences in grouping patterns between different bullet manufacturers. He built a sorting machine using python, 3d printed parts, and image recognition. It sounds similar to penny sorting by date and weight. He sorted by looking at the stamp on the shell and verified they weighed a certain amount.