A Man Who Carefully Saved Every Penny For 45 Years Finally Cashed Out

At first glance, Otha Anders looked like any other guy. Behind closed doors, though, he had a strange hobby. You see, Otha had been collecting pennies for decades. Then, after 40-plus years of saving, he finally decided to hand them in at his bank. But just how much had he made with his massive haul?

Was there a catalyst?

It’s a fascinating story. Would you have the willpower to save coins for that long? We’re not sure if we could. But at the same time, it also raises a few questions. And perhaps one of the biggest is this: what made Otha decide to start his jaw-dropping collection?

Coin collecting

Well, Otha’s in good company, as collecting coins isn’t anything new. Back in Roman times, academics and the rich put stockpiles together. The great emperor Augustus was even rumored to be into it. Then again, we doubt any of them assembled a hoard quite like Otha’s!

Taking shape

Anyway, it took some time before the hobby really started to gain steam with the public. In fact, we’ve got to fast-forward to the 19th century to see it take shape. And there are plenty of folks still squirreling their change away today, as Otha’s tale shows. Why do people do it, though?

An easy hobby to start

Well, unlike certain hobbies, stockpiling coins couldn’t be simpler. It doesn’t require a great deal of effort to get a collection going — all you need to do is open your wallet. Did that play a part in Otha’s decision to save his pennies for more than 40 years?

History, production, and value

There are also some folks who love the historical aspect of collecting coins. Others use it as a way of educating themselves about the way cash is made. And then there are those who just want to use old coins as a nest egg for the future.

Otha’s story

But do any of that explain why Otha kept hold of his pennies? Not quite. He spilled the beans, though, when he spoke to USA Today about his collection in 2015. And his reasoning may just catch you off guard...

“Always be thankful”

You see, after Otha stumbled across a loose coin more than four decades ago, something clicked. He revealed, “I became convinced that spotting a lost or dropped penny was an additional God-given incentive reminding me to always be thankful. 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.”

A big change

So, Otha started to stack up these pennies at his home in Louisiana. Sounds innocent enough, wouldn’t you say? His partner and their kids certainly didn’t seem to have a problem with it. But before long, he wasn’t just keeping hold of the coins he’d find out and about.

The collection grew...

Yep, at a certain point, Otha flat-out refused to use any of his own pennies when buying stuff at stores. Instead, he’d try to walk away from the cash register with even more to add to his collection. Normally, he’d ask for three or more in his change.

Otha’s principle

And just like that, the pennies really started to stack up. Folks around Otha realized what he was doing, too, and he was happy to accept coins from them. But there were certain conditions to be met before Otha could add those pennies to his collection.

“Compensated”

“I would never spend a penny. I would break a dollar before giving up a penny,” Otha recalled. “But I never allowed anyone — not even my wife nor children — to give me pennies without being compensated. I wanted the inner satisfaction that God and I acquired this collection.”

Pay up

So, yes, Otha would pay people for the pennies. He wasn’t just pulling out his wallet at home, either. The family man worked at a local school, looking after kids who’d been “in-school suspended.” And word of the quirky coin collection soon traveled among those youngsters.

Helping hands

How did the kids respond to that? Well, they also wanted to help Otha out in increasing his hoard. So, before he knew it, they’d begun to collect loads of pennies themselves. Then the ever-fair Otha gave them the equivalent money in value.

Tempted?

Yes, the pennies continued to come in as the years rolled on. Yet we can’t help but ask: was there ever a time when Otha at least considered parting with them? Well, during a television interview, he suggested that he could’ve done so a few decades ago — but something held him back.

Government incentive

“Back in the late 1960s or earlier 1970s, the government was giving $25 extra for every $100 of pennies that you turned in,” Otha explained. “[But] even then, I refused to turn my pennies in to earn that extra $25 per hundred.” We wonder how much he could’ve made during that spell.

How many jugs?!

By sticking to his guns, though, Otha had a truly staggering collection going into the fall of 2015. We hope you’re ready. Incredibly, he’d filled up 15 five-gallon containers with his pennies. Nope, that’s not a typo. 15. Holy smokes.

Giving up the collection

So, what finally prompted Otha to give up his precious collection? Had he run out of space? After all, a single five-gallon jug isn’t all that small. Imagine keeping 15 of them in your house! But that wasn’t the reason. Instead, the decision had been effectively taken out of his hands.

The home insurance policy

You see, when Otha looked to extend his home insurance policy, he wanted the pennies to be included in the coverage. Understandable, right? But the contract wouldn’t allow it, and other companies toed a similar line. That essentially meant he couldn’t claim compensation if something happened to his coins.

A difficult choice

With that in mind, Otha had two choices. He could either take a chance and continue to collect the pennies knowing they wouldn’t be protected, or he had to cash out. Given what we’ve learned about Otha, something tells us this would’ve been a very tough decision to make.

Heading to the bank

Otha eventually opted for the safer choice, which brings us back to the moment when he arrived at his bank. And it was quite the scene. Given the sheer number of jugs he had, the dad couldn’t bring them in by himself. On top of that, a normal-sized car wouldn’t have been big enough to carry all the containers, either.

Friendly assistance

What did Otha do, then? Well, he called upon some relatives and pals to assist him on the journey to Origin Bank in Ruston. They eventually managed to get the 15 jugs into a truck. And once the group got there, the staff were a little baffled. We don’t blame them — it was an unusual situation!

The bank’s response

The bank’s vice president was at least gracious about the situation. Jennie Cole also spoke to USA Today, and she confirmed that Otha had held an account there for years before this moment. “We value his business, as we do all of our customers,” Cole said. “If we can help [him] with his endeavors, we’re happy to do so.”

Counting the hoard

Anyway, Otha’s party and some of the workers at the bank started to wheel the jugs off the truck using carts. Then all 15 of them were eventually transported to a “coin room” so the collection could be counted. Yeah... about that. How in the world would anyone be able to sort through that many pennies?

How did they get the coins out?

Thankfully for the staff, it didn’t need to be done by hand. Instead, the money could be emptied into a coin counter. The relief must’ve been palpable! But that brings us on to the next issue: how would they get the pennies out of the jugs? This wasn’t like tipping over a standard piggy bank, after all.

Grab the ax!

The solution was simple — and suitably quirky. The group used a hammer and ax to break into the containers. Then they poured the cash into a large bucket. And from there, the pennies were scooped up and gradually dropped inside the coin counter. As you can probably guess, this wasn’t the quickest of jobs.

A long wait

In total, it took roughly five hours to empty the 15 containers and count the coins. Wow. And the wait had to have been tense for Otha. Wouldn’t you be anxious to find out how much you’d saved over the last 40-plus years of collecting? Well, he got his answer in the end — and it’s sure to blow your mind.

Half a million pennies

Overall, Otha had been sitting on a sum of $5,136.14. To break it down even further, that came from roughly 500,000 pennies. Not bad! Those coins would ultimately be moved over to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, otherwise known as the FDIC.

How did Otha spend it?

But you’re probably curious what Otha did with the cash. Well, we can tell you that the timing couldn’t have been better. You see, he had a dentist bill to cover, and the $5,000-plus covered that with more to spare.

Spreading praise

Otha planned to spend that remaining money on a vacation with his relatives. He also decided to keep some aside for his church. Good for him! Given how much he credited God earlier, we shouldn’t be too surprised. But the dad also praised someone else for their role in building his tower of pennies.

Jack “Domino Kid” Brown

During his chat with USA Today, Otha namechecked his coin-collecting buddy Jack “Domino Kid” Brown. He explained, “Jack saved nickels as I saved pennies, and every nickel that passed through my hands I would save for him. He did likewise with pennies for me.” Sounds like a cool arrangement.

“Our exchange became competitive”

Then again, it didn’t take long for Otha and Jack to make a contest out of it. That sparked a friendly rivalry between the pair. “Our exchange became competitive by each trying to outdo the other. And consequently, our collections — his nickels, my pennies — began to multiply,” Otha added.

Instinct

We wonder how much of that $5,136.14 was because of that contest, then? A few dollars at least, you’d think. But even once Otha cashed in, it couldn’t have been easy for him to stop grabbing pennies. And the collector has offered some further insight into how instinctive it’d become over the previous four decades.

“I’m keeping it”

“If I was at someone’s house and I found a penny, I would pick it up and I would keep it,” Otha revealed to USA Today. “I will always tell the person that if it was a quarter, I would give it back, but since it’s a penny, I’m keeping it.” Unless he planned to start from scratch, though, those days were over.

Lots of coverage

Several other news outlets picked up on Otha’s unique tale, too. Websites such as HuffPost, ABC News, and Metro all covered it in 2015. The watchJojo YouTube channel also dedicated a video to the story that’s since earned over ten million views. No, people just can’t get enough of those pennies!