Man Cashes in 1.3 Million Pennies at Coinstar Machine for New World Record

June 23, 2005

This news item seemed quirky enough to take note of:

Alabama Man Sets New World Record Cash-In of Largest Penny Collection; More Than 1.3 Million Pennies Cashed In Using Coinstar Machine at Local Escambia County Bank

And I thought my uncles were weird!

Some intriguing things about the story:

The guy collected these pennies for 38 years and had them stored in his garage in four 55-gallon drums and three 20-gallon oil barrels. They weighed more than 4.5 tons.

Coinstar says there is over $10.5 Billion in loose change sitting around people's homes in the U.S.

According to today's release, a Coinstar machine can count up to 600 coins per minute, and the story only mentions one machine at this guy's local bank in Flomaton, Alabama. I'm wondering, did the guy stand at the machine for 36 hours spilling in coins?

1,308,459 pennies is only $13,084.59. I guess if I saw $13,084.59 lying on the ground I would pick it up (unless it was all in pennies) -- but still, that doesn't sound like such a great payoff for all the hassle involved!

AB -- 6/23/05

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