One simple habit turned out to be really beneficial.
Are you one of those persons that grab whatever bit of loose coin they come across?
They may be modest in value, but they pile up rapidly.
What if you set a month’s goal of collecting all the pennies you could find? What number do you believe you’d have?
Let’s take it a step further now. What if you spent a whole year collecting pennies? Let’s say 45 years.
Otha Anders, a man by the name of Otha, did exactly that.
This man had been collecting pennies for 45 years and when he brought them in, he blew his bank tellers away.
Otha Anders is a Louisiana public school teacher.
He didn’t start collecting coins in the late 1960s to gain fortune; he did it because he enjoyed it.
He was uninterested even when the government started paying $125 for every $100 of pennies turned in.
He was pleased to have the collection.
Using the act of gathering pennies as an alibi for praying to one’s higher power.
Anders mentioned that the seeing of pennies served as a constant reminder to him to pause and say a prayer.
“It would be a reminder to stop right there and say a prayer,” Anders remarked to ABC News. “If I would see a penny when I would be filling up, on the ground, or in a store, it would be a reminder to stop right there.” “I’ve never once been unable to accomplish it. That is why they were of such great importance to me.
Anders never, ever accepted any coins as a gift from anyone else throughout the entirety of his pursuit of collecting pennies.
“But I never permitted anyone, not even my wife nor my children, to give me pennies without getting reimbursed,” he continued. “I’ve always insisted on being paid for my time.”
“I wanted the deep gratification that comes from knowing that God and I worked together to achieve this collection.”
Anders placed a high value on the habit he had developed over the years of pausing whatever he was doing and reciting a prayer whenever he came across a penny.
He realized that on the days when he did not express sufficient gratitude for what he had, a penny would appear in his line of sight to serve as a gentle reminder.
“I came to the conclusion that finding a lost or dropped penny was an additional motivation placed upon me by God to serve as a constant reminder to be appreciative. There have been times when I have neglected to pray, and on those days, more often than not, I will find a misplaced or dropped cent to serve as a gentle reminder.
Anders stuffed large water bottles to capacity with the coins he had amassed.
He stated that at one point in time, his objective was to fill up five enormous water jugs, but after he accomplished that, he felt the urge to continue moving forward.
He had no choice but to go to the bank and hand them over if he wanted to complete the task.
When he went to the bank after a long delay, he had already filled 15 jugs of 5 gallons each.
“I needed to fill five water jugs that held a total of five gallons each. That was the objective, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop…. If I hadn’t turned them in the day before, I hadn’t planned on stopping.
Anders discovered that the act of collecting the pennies had a value all its own, but he also learned that the pennies, when totalled together, had a large monetary worth.
He called the Origin Bank in Ruston, Louisiana, where he had been a customer for years after discovering that his homeowner’s insurance policy would not cover his collection.
Anders informed them that he would be coming in with a substantial number of pennies in his possession.
They were delighted to be of assistance; nonetheless, it proved to be quite a challenge for them.
Jennie Cole, a vice president at the bank, was quoted as saying, “We respect his business, as we do all of our customers.” But if we can assist Anders in any way with his ambitions, we would be more than pleased to do so.
The process of opening the jars required the use of an ax, and it took more than five hours to complete.
It turned out that Anders’ coin collection was quite valuable, being estimated at thousands of dollars.
In the following video, you’ll get more information about the rich penny collection owned by Otha Anders.
