Are you one of those people who rushes to grab any piece of change you see lying around? Sure, their value may be small, but they add up quickly.
This man collected pennies for 45 years and blew his bank tellers away when he brought them in.
Otha Anders is a teacher from the state of Louisiana.
When he began collecting coins in the late 1960s, it wasn’t to amass any type of wealth; he just liked doing it. Even when the government began a program to pay $125 for every $100 of pennies turned in, he wasn’t interested. He liked having the collection.
Collecting pennies as an excuse to say a prayer.
Anders said that he began seeing pennies as a reminder to stop and say a prayer.
“If I see a penny when I’m gassing up, on the ground, or in a store, it would be a reminder to stop right there and say a prayer,” Anders said to ABC News. “I never failed to do that. That’s why they had so much value to me.”
At no point during all of his penny-collecting did Anders accept coins as a gift from anyone else.
“But I never allowed anyone, not even my wife or children, to give me pennies without being compensated,” he continued. “I wanted the inner satisfaction that God and I acquired from this collection.”
Filling up giant water jugs with pennies.
Anders filled big water jugs with the coins he collected. He said at one point his goal was to fill up five giant water jugs, but once he had done that, he felt the urge to keep going. He needed to go to the bank and turn them in, or else he’d never do it.
“We value his business, as we do all of our customers,” said the bank’s Vice President, Jennie Cole. “But if we can help Anders with his endeavors, we are happy to do so.”
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