Gas Station Owner Cashes In 1.4 Million Pennies ($13,804.59)

[matcom]

<snip>

FLOMATON, Ala. --Edmond Knowles started out saving pennies in a 5-gallon can. Thirty-eight years later, he was storing them in four 55-gallon drums and three 20-gallon drums -- nearly 1.4 million in all.

Knowles, who runs a gas station, cashed them in Wednesday, pocketing $13,804.59 after they were counted at a bank.

"It's just something that happened," he said. "I started so long ago that I don't even remember why."

He got some help along the way from customers at Ed's Service Station.

"Customers would come by and say: `Ed, throw these in your drum,'" he said.

Coinstar Inc., a company that maintains coin-counting machines in banks and supermarkets, said Knowles' 1,380,459 pennies breaks the record of 1,048,013 held by Eugene J. Sukie of Barberton, Ohio.

Coinstar spokesman George White said the company's research and U.S. Census data indicate that coins worth more than $10 billion are sitting idle in American homes. White said the amount collected by Knowles is about the same amount that passes through a person's hands over the years. "Ed just took the time to close his hand," said White.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/06/23/gas_station_owner_cashes_in_14m_pennies?mode=PF

[rfranklin]

1. This is a public relations press release for Coinstar....

They want to get their cut of that $10 billion.

[ReadTomPaine]

2. I alway wind up behind guys like this in the bank.

"Oops, I've lost count. Let me start again..."

[BikeWriter]

3. I have coins in containers all over my house.

I rarely spend coins I get in change.

[intrepid_wanderer]

4. i hate change...

... that's why I dump it all the time...

although I get to use a coin-star machine at my bank w/o a surcharge... so I 'cash-in' a little more frequently than each 38 YEARS!!


wow

[BikeWriter]

6. Yep, it annoys me to have a pocket full of change...

I put it in containers around the house.

[LynneSin]

5. THAT'S IT!!! I'm taking the penniess out of the penny cup at my local gas

station.

Time I make money off of them instead of them making it off of me

:grr: