I don't have all the answers...
but I do know that in my child's classroom, they used milk jugs with the tops cut off to hold the money. These jugs were in the hallway by the cafeteria/office...they needed to be somewhere so classes can put the silver and paper into competing jugs.

They then told the kids that the class with the most pennies would win...BUT any silver or paper would be deducted from the penny total...

for example.. lets say there were only two classrooms...
in one classroom, they have 300 pennies in their jar... $3 total
in the other classroom, they have 500 pennies, $1 bill, 8 quarters...

Classroom #1 wins because Class 2 got $3 deducted, leaving them with $2 worth of pennies.

It takes a ton of time to count and subtract all those coins.. but it was pretty fun.
The class won a pizza party.

Has any one ever done the penny drive or the coin drive? How do you do it and how do you secure the different containers from each class room.