45 years ago, Otha Anders, a man from Ruston, Louisiana found a penny on the ground. He picked it up and he prayed to God and thanked Him.
For the next four and half decades, he would pick up fallen or lost pennies off the ground. He saw them as an incentive to pray and give thanks. He told The News Star, “There have been days where I failed to pray and more often than not, a lost or dropped penny would show up to remind me.”
Recently, Anders was forced to cash in his penny stash. The News Star reports on how big it was:
Fifteen five-gallon plastic water jugs and half a million pennies later, Anders on Tuesday deposited $5,136.14 into his account to go toward a recent dental bill.
He cashed in the coins to the Ruston Origin Bank, formerly known as Community Trust.
After that first coin, Anders said his penny pile began to grow and he ultimately stopped spending pennies and always made sure whenever he made a purchase, his change contained at least three to four pennies.
Bank employees were forced to break open the plastic jugs with an axe and hammer. Then they loaded the pennies into a coin counting machine with small buckets. It took five of Anders’s closest friends and relatives to help bring the penny jugs into the coin counting room.
What is the bank going to do with all of these pennies? They will turn them into the FDIC and receive credit for them. But most banks have recently abandoned coin counting machines and are reluctant to exchange coins for cash.
AAN Staff
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