Thrifty saver, 81, stuns bank staff by handing over 81,600 pennies weighing 500 pounds that nearly ‘broke the springs’ on his pickup truck (From Daily Mail) [2 Articles]
~ Friday, January 12, 2024 Blog Post ~
I found this Daily Mail article posted online almost nine years ago from my files stored in a DVD-R, and I must say I can very much relate with the 81-year-old subject named Ira Keys. We are similar in plenty of ways.
Mr. Keys is a thrifty saver from Texas who was able to accumulate 81,600 pennies weighing 500 pounds. He had kept his coins at home for a whopping 65 years, and piled them high in coffee containers, which he brought to the local bank.
When Mr. Keys cashed in his collection, it took the financial institution’s staff over one hour to count the money, which totaled US$816. It was certainly an unusual day at the bank.
Mr. Keys shared that back when he began saving pennies in 1952, he did not have much money. Hence, this Texas resident saved the coins and just kept keeping them away.
The diligent penny saver remarked he would carry on saving and disclosed that he still had a stash of coins at home. He cited that he would build a room divider and have the glittering pennies all inside it.
Like Mr. Keys, I’m also a thrifty saver, or better yet, a thrifty super-saver. I am amazed by the astounding quantity of coins he amassed. I feel impressed with Mr. Keys for having done this money-saving activity for almost 70 years.
People today would generally complain about pennies’ weight and would merely toss them away, yet I never do that. Similar to Mr. Keys, I also have a penny-saving obsession, which comes from the fact that coins collected and deposited help the amount in bank deposit accounts increment.
They add to the interest deposit accounts earn monthly, quarterly, or yearly. A penny saved is a penny earned, indeed. Thus, I don’t mind picking up pennies on the ground every time I’m outdoors taking my morning walks or strolling at the mall. Like the Texas saver, I intend to stash loose coins for the rest of my life. I will never break this financially rewarding habit for it makes perfect financial sense to me.
Nonetheless, I surely won’t keep the coins at home for many years, since I certainly want them to earn interest as part of my savings deposits. Rather than cashing the coins in all in one go like what Mr. Keys did, I usually deposit them together with my bill deposits.
Furthermore, coins lose their value by demonetization, which central banks conduct. The latter consequently issue new series of banknotes and coins with novel design and security features.
Finally, I appreciate Mr. Keys’s father who advised him to save his money whatever he does. That financial golden nugget is a valuable lesson about saving, in which the senior citizen saver replied he would keep his piggybank full.
Here is the article:
Article #1: Thrifty saver, 81, stuns bank staff by handing over 81,600 pennies weighing 500 pounds that nearly ‘broke the springs’ on his pickup truck (From Daily Mail)
By Belinda Robinson, January 19, 2015
- Ira Keys, 81, had been saving his pennies for nearly seven decades
- He finally decided to cash them in to Prosperity Bank bank in Slaton, Texas
- His penny-saving obsession came after his dad encouraged him to save
- Keys plans to continue to save and admits he still has a stash of pennies
There’s a saying that a penny saved is a penny earned.
That was certainly true for one Texas man who saved all of his pennies over a staggering 65 years and had a collection of 81,600 pennies worth $816.
Ira Keys, 81, had been saving his pennies for nearly seven decades and finally decided to cash them in at a bank in Slaton, Texas.
Keys said his penny-saving obsession begun after his father encouraged him to save his money when he was a young man and some were saved when he was just 17-years-old.
He told KCBD-TV: ‘[My dad] says, ‘Whatever you do son, save your money.’
Keys said: ‘Back when I started in ’52, I didn’t have a lot of money, so I saved pennies and I just kept saving them.’
His collection weighed a whopping 500 pounds and Keys joked that he nearly ‘broke the springs on his pickup truck’ while he hauled them into the bank.
Bank staff at Prosperity Bank took more than an hour to count the pennies which were piled high in coffee containers.
Kari Lewis, a personal banker at Prosperity Bank, told KCBD that Keys’ collection of pennies was unlike anything she has ever seen before.
‘You see them on the ground and you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, I’m not picking that up,’ but for him to collect it for years and years was pretty amazing,’ she said.
She added: ‘We ended up with $816 in pennies. Not a typical day at the bank, at all.’
However Keys admits that he still has a ton of pennies at home which he did not cash in and already has a plan for what he’s going to do with them.
‘I’m going to build a room divider and have pennies all in it,’ he said, ‘the shiny ones.’
But the 81-year-old is still holding on to his father’s valuable lesson about saving. He says he will keep his piggy bank full.
‘It’s just a habit I’ve got into, and habits are hard to break sometimes,’ Keys said, ‘but I don’t think I’ll have this many when I cash them in again.’
He also believes that his father would have been annoyed that he’d cashed in his stash.
He joked: ‘He’d say, I told you to save…not to cash them in.’
Source:
Article #2: Texas man deposits 500 pounds of pennies at bank (From Fox News)
By Fox News, January 18, 2015
Every little bit helps.
After 65 years of saving pennies, an 81-year-old man deposited 81,600 of them — $816 worth — at a bank in Slaton, Texas.
Ira Keys’ collection weighed in at around 500 pounds and took Prosperity Bank employees more than an hour to count, KCBD reports.
Keys said his father told him “Whatever you do son, save your money.”
“Back when I started in ’52, I didn’t have a lot of money, so I saved pennies and I just kept saving them,” Keys added.
Kari Lewis, a personal banker at Prosperity Bank, told KCBD that Keys’ collection of pennies was unlike anything she has ever seen before.
“You see them on the ground and you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, I’m not picking that up,’ but for him to collect it for years and years was pretty amazing,” she said.
Keys said he will continue to collect pennies.
Source:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-man-deposits-500-pounds-of-pennies-at-bank
