Man collects pennies for 45 years before cashing in unbelievable amount

Otha Anders took the idea of a lucky penny and ran with it.

The Louisiana man started collecting pennies he found on the street 45 years ago.

He collected them in water jugs and eventually cashed them in.

The amount was impressive, but what he ended up spending his cash on was slightly disappointing.

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Finding a coin on the floor has been a symbol of good luck for hundreds of years.

In ancient civilizations, they were seen as a gift from the heavens to protect the finder from evil.

Otha Anders saw them as a reminder to practice gratitude.

“I became convinced that spotting a lost or dropped penny was an additional God-given incentive reminding me to always be thankful,” Anders said.

“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.”

He started keeping the coins he found and eventually had so many he needed to find a storage solution.

Anders put his pennies in his own version of piggy banks: five-gallon plastic water jugs.

After 45 years he had filled 15 of these jugs.

While that might make Anders sound super lucky, his penny-collecting methods weren’t strictly kept to the streets.

The 73-year-old was also sure to ask for his change in pennies whenever he went shopping.

“I would never spend a penny,” he said.

“I would break a dollar before giving up a penny.”

He also earned a reputation for his collection, and the students at the school he taught at would bring pennies in for him.

But he never accepted donations, always paying people for the coins they gave him.

He decided to cash in his pennies after learning that they were not covered by his insurance.

Anders took the jugs to his local bank in the back of a truck.

Here the bank employees loaded the coins into their counting machine.

The process took five hours, during which Anders sat and watched the counter slowly rise.

Eventually he was given credit for his collection which amounted to half a million coins.

Anders walked away with an impressive $5,136.14.

So what did he do with his savings?

He paid off a dental bill.