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If you see a penny on the ground, do you ever bother to stop and pick it up? Most people never do, they just walk right by and continue on their way. The one cent value is not worth bending over for. Sometimes people may pick up a penny here or a penny there if they think it’s a “lucky” one, but they don’t stop for every stray coin they see. One man, Otha Anders, is one of the rare exceptions in this regard because he’s picked up every penny that he has ever come across for the last 45 years!
When the 77 year old man from Louisiana was asked what motivated him, he said that finding a penny on the ground was akin to a sign from God, reminding him that he should always be thankful. He added that while he strived to pray every day, sometimes he failed to do so and on the days that he would forget, he would often come across a lost penny. After he noticed the connection, Anders always made time to pray and be thankful.
Over the years Anders took his penny saving ways to even greater extremes. He worked at a school and when the children heard he saved pennies they started bringing him ones they had saved or found. He never just took the kids money, however, and instead he’d pay for them in cash and other coin denominations. He would also exchange nickels for pennies with a friend who was saving nickels the same way that he was saving pennies. In addition, he’d never pay for anything with exact change, instead he’d only use nickels, dimes, and quarters.
All that penny picking and praying certainly added up and when Anders finally decided to cash in, he had a whole lot of change on his hands. In fact, it took fifteen five-gallon plastic water jugs to contain the half a million pennies he’d collected in the past forty-five years. Since they weighed about 2,800 pounds, he needed a dolly to transport them all and when he walked into Ruston Origin Bank, in Ruston Louisiana, it was quite a scene. People had never seen so many pennies before!
The bank broke out all the automatic coin counting machines they had on hand and yet it still took staffers over 5 hours to count it all. When they were finally done, the grand total came out to $5,136! That’s a nice chunk of money and it goes to show just how lucrative pinching pennies can be.
Now that he has some extra pocket money Anders plans on putting it towards some upcoming dental work he needs to have done. And if you’re wondering what prompted him to finally cash in after 45 years of saving, it turns out that his homeowner’s insurance would not cover the pennies should they ever get stolen or destroyed in a fire. Something tells me that it would take a lot of hard work, muscle, and time to steal half a million pennies!
Check out the video for more on this story and to hear about some of the other people who have collected change just like Anders did.
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