How do you rack up 34 rolls a year in pennies? Take them from the box near the cash register?

Cheetah,

Try dumping all the change out of your pockets/pocket book every day. That's what my uncle AND my father did. When daddy died, I found 5 - 5lb coffee tins in his bathroom that was FULL of change. He dumped his pockets in there every day. And no one bothered it either. My uncle did the same, but dumped his in a crockery jar. About once a year, he'd haul it to the bank and have them deposit it into a savings account. when he died, it came up to a tidy little fortune <VBG>

If he had added about $2 a month (the amount of pennies he saving) to his mortgage payment he would have paid the loan off a little earlier with a lot less work.

The main reason that the Mint has to produce so many pennies losing money on each one made is fools that keep hundreds of dollars of them in jars at home.

Did I miss something, or did this couple get themselves a 35 YEAR mortgage loan? Where do I get one of those???

Skup,

Yeah, sounds like his motive to make some point outweighed his understanding of compound interest.

I was thinking the same thing. Possibly refinanced after 5 years?

62000 / 100 = $620 dollars. I wish my mortgage was only that much.

I wish my mortgage pay-off was $620.00!

62,000 pennies at 50 pennies per roll is 1,240 rolls of pennies. It's no wonder it took the bank two days to unroll them all. I'll bet they hated him for that. It may have cost them more to pay for the labor to unroll the pennies than the pennies were worth.

An unbiased American,

"62000 / 100 = $620 dollars. I wish my mortgage was only that much."

So do I. But I think that $620 was probably the amount of his final payment on the mortgage.

Many years ago I took penny rolls to my small town NH bank and the teller just felt the rolls to check that they all had 50 pennies. She (the teller)handed one roll back to me and said "One short"! I'll never forget that...she was right!

Wonderful story.

How many banks accept this many rolls of pennies?

Don't try this with the IRS for your income tax. I don't know about the rules of private banks accepting any form of legal tender, but I'm pretty sure the IRS can fine you for some kind of "spurious" payment (like writing a check on the back of the "shirt off your back")

If they took the loan out 35 years ago, and never borrowed on the equity in their home, his payments may have BEEN $620, or even less.

You'd be surprised how many pennies are on the ground...I pick up a few a day easily and I'm not even trying to look for them.

Gave the bank their money one penny at a time; now maybe the bank will type up his paid deed and give it to him....one letter at a time!

Actually, I'm surprised that they took the pennies. Many places will refuse a payment in pennies.

James, want to become wealthy beyond your dreams in only a month? All you have to do is start at the beginning of the month, find a single penny on the street and save it. The next day, find two pennies, the thrid day, four pennies, etc. Each day double the number you found the previous day. At the end of the month you will not only be able to pay off your mortgage, whatever the size and balance is, but you'll be set for the rest of your life!

What an ass.

Probably would have been easier to weigh a valid roll of 50 pennies and then weigh the 1200 plus rolls he turned in. Just saying!

Mozzie-6 Why is he an ass? He payed with legal tender, didn't he?

GreenTimer At one time, in the 50's and 60's, you could write a check for a payment on just a piece of paper. Long as you had bank name and account number. These were the days prior to routing numbers and magnetic ink so electronic readers can read the routing and account info!

Once had a summer job at an elementary school. Every school year the little rascals would think it so cool to throw small change on the floor and watch the janitors pick up the change whenever they swept. Every year the custodians had a heck of party or two.

gumps...The bank probably took it because it gave them FREE publicity. Heres a small town bank that just got some free mortgage add space on MSNBC, and probably many more local tv/radio/newspapers. Probably worth it for them.

Good for him! And good for him for making the bank work for their money! So, Mozzie? Why is he an ass? Pennies are legal tender. Seems like you might be the ass!

the other rick - I believe you're right. I'm sure he arranged this ahead of time and they agreed to take his penny collection.

Gumps, GreenTimer, etc.,

Many places refuse pennies as payment because they are not required to accept them. However, pennies are legal tender for all debts public and private. Walmart, for example, doesn't have to accept them for purchases. But if you have an actual debt, pennies must be accepted.

35 years of penny collecting. Any coin collector will tell you that in that mountain of pennys there where probably hundreds of them worth alot more than a penny. I sure hope they picked the good ones out before cashing in the rest.

This guy lives in a town near me and as usual, the local papers had more information than in the short AP article. Mr. Daigle wanted to make their last payment "memorable" since paying off their mortgage would be something to celebrate. So when he found a penny on the ground right after signing their mortgage papers, he and his wife talked about saving their pennies to pay off the mortgage, and the idea was born from there.

Gumps - you're right; he did arrange it with the bank ahead of time and they were fine with it. It's a small local bank, so they're much more agreeable than, for example, BofA, and good publicity for them to boot.

Spider - no, he didn't give the bank their money one penny at a time. He brought them in in 2 boxes, each weighing about 400 pounds. He collected an average of 2.5 pennies per day, and he kept them in a crate in his basement at first. When the crate couldn't hold the weight, he bought a pair of steel military rocket launcher ammo boxes to hold the pennies. Since he only collected pennies he found on the ground, his last mortgage payment was literally "found" money.

He only collected pennies he found on the ground

Robert in Oregon - in 1977 when they bought their home, 35 year mortgages weren't unusual with small local banks. It was their only mortgage, and no, they didn't refinance.

Sing Biker - you're right, it was their only mortgage, taken out 35 years ago. And for An unbiased American and Mikey - although the local papers didn't say, I wouldn't be surprised if $620 was their monthly mortgage amount given the location and real estate prices around here in 1977. Kind of depends on their down payment too - 35 years ago you couldn't get away with putting only 5% or less down and still get your mortgage approved by a local bank so I'd expect their down payment lowered the amount of their monthly payment. But balance that off against the lower wage scale in the area before you get too envious.

And in the "feel good" department, their last mortgage payment was due on their 35th wedding anniversary. Kind of a fun way to celebrate, don't you think?

Thanks a lot for the effort to get all that down. It's nice to know the guy didn't just have a major grudge against the teller!

It's also a great way to pay traffic and parking tickets.

a penny saved is a penny earned, my granny used to say

Did your granny ever pay $5 for a latte? I see a penny on the ground I don't bother reaching down to pick it up.

Sunlitensmiles....(#1)..."Good For You !!!! .......a penny saved is a penny earned, my granny used to say"

My Irish Grandfather told me some 45 years ago, " Michael, mee lad" he said," Keep an eye on yer Pennies and yer Dollars will take care of themselves"...

That was great advice...kept me from getting nickled and dimed to death...and comfortably retired at 56.

My bank will only accept rolled coins, they gave me some advice though....."Take your change to Winn-Dixie next door (grocery chain for those not familiar), they have a change sorter/counter machine"....

Sure, sure and they charge you 8% ....It prints out a receipt you can take to the cash register for 92% of your change... So, if you go in with $100.00 in loose change, you get back $92...I rolled my change.

35 year mortgage??? Not sure about the interest rate but certainly there was a time where re-finacing would have been a wise financial move. Speaking of financial moves, paying down the principle beginning 35 years ago would have ELIMINATED some of the payments at the end. No need to pay in pennies, dollars, gold, first born, etc.

Did a little quick figuring....Not counting taxes and PMI....A mortgage in 1977 with an average rate at the time of 8.5% for 35 years with a $620.00/ month payment would have been for about a $83,000 loan.....

If the property taxed and PMI were escrowed...the loan amount would be more like $70,000

Here's the killer.....$620/ month X 420 (months) = $260,400 in payments....most of it was the interest....

Robert...35, even 40 year mortgages are becoming more and more common. However, with this guy, it is more likely that somewhere along the way he took out a second mortgage.

(This applies to Mike in Delray...he likely refinanced his mortgage when the rates dropped which is why it was an usual length mortgage for the time. Not many people who are unfortunately enough to buy a house at ususally high rates stick with those rates for the entire lonegth of the mortgage.)

vball14...(#1.34)...

It's certainly is possible he did a refi.....but it would have more recent....take a look at this page of mortgage rates.....it isn't until the 2000's, the savings benefit of a refi might have outweighed the costs involved in getting one....

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/MORTG.txt

The article itself doesn't give much info, except for the Pennies Payment....

Nice to read an interesting light hearted story with a happy ending. More please!

I'm going to keep that in mind for the company that just bought my mortgage when they prove to be as bad or worse than the company that sold my mortage to them.

First, they sold my mortage and notified me like 3 days before payment was do with a "don't worry" if you made your mortage payment we will get it to the new lender without penalty. We will do that by the 10th of the next month.

Second, they failed to pay my home insurance. I got a notice yesterday that my homeowners insurance would be cancelled by the 13th if I do not pay. The insurance premium is about as much as the mortages, I barely have enough for the mortgage. Being a holiday, I won't be able to talk to my agent until Monday.

Third, Before getting laid off, we often would have to use a day or two of grace, because my wife's pay would be delayed because of holidays. This was priceless because when the banks started putting funds on hold for 2 business days making us hit 5 days of the grace period. If that occured, they would flood both cellphones and land lines with up to 5 calls a day from numbers that did not identify who they were.

We had 5 loans at one point. They were the only ones to behave this way.

Fourth, The bank was supposed to be open until the 10th of this month. They shut everything down on the 2nd.

Fifth, I hadn't looked them up in over a year. The bank was in a class action lawsuit - and probably about to lose. That is why they did what they did.

Sixth, I looked up the new Mortgage holder. Their Reputation is as bad and probably worse than the one they bought us from.

I can hardly wait until Monday to get more answers.

Yeah, paying in pennies is sounding real good right now.

Mike in Delray,

Your numbers seem about right. And even at lower rates, most mortgages accrue 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 times more interest than principal. Realtors tell you that the property will appreciate that much over the same time; meaning you are paying yourself all that interest, and getting a tax deduction as well. I think we all know the truth now.

vball14,

Actually, the low and super-low rates we see today were normal back in the early 1960's. Of course, downpayments were between 20-50%. But from the late 60's through the 1980's interest rates climbed steadily, then dropped somewhat in the 90's and leveled until the crash. The fact is that by the time interest rates came down, it would have cost the owner more to refinance than the remaining interest on his loan. By the way, the lenght of the mortgage has always been negotiable, it was just most people accepted the formulaic designs of 15, 25 or 30 years. Forty year mortgages used to be common, especially for farms and rural properties where income was less stable from year to year.

Lessee .... 62000 pennies is about 400 lbs @ approx $3 a pound for copper = $1200 in scrap.

Who got the last laugh???

"Lessee .... 62000 pennies is about 400 lbs @ approx $3 a pound for copper = $1200 in scrap.

Who got the last laugh???"

Some of the of the pennies may be old enough to be 95% copper but most are probably the 97.5% zinc with a plated outside since 1983. Also, I believe that the treasury prohibits the smelting of US coinage for the metal value...least of all banks.

Here's an eye-opener from Wikipedia:

As of 2012, it costs the U.S. Mint 2.41 cents to make a cent because of the cost of materials and production. The loss due to producing the one cent coin in the United States for the year of 2011 was $60,200,000 (60.2 million dollars) This is an increase from 2010, the year before, which had a production loss of $27,400,000 (27.4 million dollars).

:-O And HOW does this make sense (cents)?

This reminds me of a college prank which left a classmate drenched and demanding that I pay for the cleaning of his watch. Although there were three others involved, I was required to pay the $30.00. It seems that witnesses claimed that my bucket of H2O landed with 100% efficiency while my cohorts did not throw their water as well.

Feeling a bit ticked that the burden fell on me alone, I decided to sweeten the payoff by giving my very aggrieved classmate 3000 pennies immersed in four jars of honey. Needless to say, the wimp cried all the way back to our faculty adviser that initially made the ruling.

This time, the adviser let me slide due to creative and hilarious considerations. After the hard loser left the meeting, the adviser told me that he made a fast ruling because he would have laughed in the wimp's face if the meeting went on any longer.

There is NOTHING unusual about a 30,35 or 40 year mortgage. the problem is that the banks wanted those ARM's and all those other nasty loans over the last 20 years or so. My parents had a 30 yr did not refi and had the kind of insurance that if one or both died the house was paid off.

This is the only kind of mortgage I would take.

'George-421202' wrote:

"... Feeling a bit ticked that the burden fell on me alone, I decided to sweeten the payoff by giving my very aggrieved classmate 3000 pennies immersed in four jars of honey."

And how much time did it take you to acquire 3000 pennies, and how much more than the $30 that you owed to your classmate for the watch you damaged ... did you have to pay to purchase four jars of honey?

Just curious, George? (get it; "Curious George") Sometimes when we act out of spite we only succeed in making a monkey of ourselves, hmm?

I thought they only accepted check payments?

Actually, the low and super-low rates we see today were normal back in the early 1960's. Of course, downpayments were between 20-50%.

My grandparents pd off the 20-yr mortgage on their 2400 sq ft 5BR home (which incl a full basement, attic crawlspace, 3 floors of living space b/c the majority of the attic had been converted to 2 BRs w/ walk-in closets, & a detached 2-car garage) in 1982. The normal down payment then was 10%, or $1,300. The price of the property was $13,000 & the mortgage pymt was $140/mo. The house was already 40 yrs old when they bought it, so I would guess it probably cost mere hundreds to build in 1922.

At the time I was paying $135/mo to rent an 800 sq ft 2BR rear apt w/ a walk-up attic & no off-street parking (on one of those annoying alternate parking city streets) & my grandfather thought it was absurd that renting had crept up so much that it was almost the cost of his mortgage. My parents pd $40/mo rent on their similar-sized 2BR upper apt when they were 1st married.

It's obscene the way *property values* have zoomed up in the last 50 yrs. When my grandmother died in 2003 that $13,000 house sold for $75,000.

The house my parents built in 1970 for $35,000 (which was considered expensive back then), your basic 2-story 2500 sq ft 4BR Colonial w/ attached 2-car garage, patio, & a quarter acre lot, sold for $90,000 10 yrs later & more than pd off their traditional 30-yr mortgage. Their pymt was way less than this guy's.

Recently it was back on the market for $260,000. That's insane. In no way was that a quarter of a million dollar home! It wasn't luxuriously appt'd w/ huge rms. It was your basic 70s suburban tract house.

But ppl pay these inflated prices on old homes that cost next to nothing to build like it's no big deal. Now you're lucky if you can rent a decent apt for the $620/mo this guy's mortgage pymt was, & owning a home is simply out of range for a lot of ppl due to this huge increase in prices.

My wife and I, due to our low combined income and life 'circumstances', know that we will never qualify for a mortgage. We don't want one, to be honest. It would require slaving away for the rest of our lives. We are 'hoping' that we can save up enough money to buy an acre or two, maybe accumulate some pieces of land and then re-sell them in a package (we hope!) so that we can buy (with cash) a farm. All we want to do, really, is live peacefully on a farm. Fix it up, put animals on it, a large garden and just enough the process of roughing it out.

To all you idiots who do not understand currency. A penny is legal currency. A bank HAS to accept them. So what he paid in pennies, man some of you people will gripe about anything. They were rolled already but no that was not good enough for the bank, they had to count each one to make sure the entire payment was there. The greed of the bank took over common sense of a final up to date mortgage payment was made, and they reacted like he was going to screw them after paying for 35 years! But no some here see the man as evil for paying in change.

"Lessee .... 62000 pennies is about 400 lbs @ approx $3 a pound for copper = $1200 in scrap.

Who got the last laugh???"

It's illegal to destroy currency. I would hope that any scrap metal recycler would report you.

Also. It's a testament to today's rampant laziness that someone would b*%tch about getting paid to count pennies. You don't like handling currency, don't be such an idiot and work in a bank. If you're doing it just for the money - well just do your freakin' job! Money is money and I have every right to spend money that I earned or saved however the hell I want to (within legal limits, of courser). If you disagree, I really don't give a flying...

Banks have to accept any legal tender...but for change...it has to be in rolls. I used to empty my pocket change every day and after a year take a small bucket to the bank to cash out. They had a coin counting machine...but now they require the change be already rolled before accepting it. If you had an account...they would provide the paper rolls...don't know if that is still the case.

Folks, when we borrow, banks do not lend existing money. They create money and give it to us! Here is how banks create money:

www.tradingstocks.net/html/banks_create_money.html

This new money inflates the money supply and punishes the savers. This is the cause of inflation we had for many decades. As inflation pushed prices higher, more people felt the need to borrow, thus the ponzi scheme feeds itself! More people become slaves to pay interest for money that was created out of nothing!

Here the problem is that any new money should belong to the society, not the bankers. Thus, the right to charge interest should belong to the society, since borrowers are diluting the money supply and reducing the value of the dollar.

But the bankers made the laws so that it works the opposite way! If you borrow, you pay less tax due to mortgage interest deduction. Double whammy.

The true cause of the economic collapse is debt based monetary system and interest based fractional reserve banking. Debt free monetary system is the way to go:

www.kondratieffwavecycle.com/web-of-debt/

If banks are creating money out of thin air, then we can do it ourselves too! Since new money dilutes the money supply, interest should be paid to the people, not the bankers! This is opposite of what we have today.

You're the curious critter, Robert. Answer your own ??? with simple math (50X60=3000..60/4=15) and logic - my college had large dining hall w/honey jars at every table. Prep time<30 minutes.

The guy was being a real dick and needed to chill and I needed the priceless barrels of laughs that eventually led him to accept the $weet$ payment as a goodhearted joke. We laughed it off and remained friends until graduation. The adviser even quipped that it was sweet deal.

You can be a monkey too, Rob, but I'll bet that you couldn't climb trees like this monkey did at 12 years old or know the difference between spite and military school humor.

'George-421202' wrote:

" .....The guy was being a real dick and needed to chill and I needed the priceless barrels of laughs that eventually led him to accept the $weet$ payment as a goodhearted joke. We laughed it off and remained friends until graduation. The adviser even quipped that it was sweet deal.

You can be a monkey too, Rob, but I'll bet that you couldn't climb trees like this monkey did at 12 years old or know the difference between spite and military school humor."

George, you may be surprised that your earlier post was not as amusing to others reading it as it apparently still is to you. And it didn't reflect you in a positive light. In fact, it actually made you look like the "real dick" (to borrow your words).

Your previous post said "three others were involved" with you, and you described your victim as a "wimp."

So it took four of you ganging-up on your sole victim, the "wimp", to drench him with buckets of water because he, in your opinion "needed to chill"?

Gosh, maybe the four of you could have just held the "wimp" down on the ground while you cut his hair, and you wouldn't have damaged his watch?

You noted that "witnesses" said it was your bucket of water that hit the victim, so a priori you were the one responsible for damaging the "wimps" watch; and you were responsible for having it cleaned ...as was adjudged by the faculty adviser at your school.

You said you were not happy with that judgment; a judgment rendered by the person appointed by your school with authority for making such decisions.

So rather than accepting your punishment, which in this case was only bearing simple personal financial responsibility for the damage you caused to your classmate's (the "wimp's") personal property, and making him whole, you instead spitefully doubled-down on your own irresponsibility in order to satisfy your own unhappiness at your school's attempt to teach you a life lesson in personal responsibility, and civility, and to show you there are consequences for your actions?

And even now, looking back on the incident you feel no remorse, no personal regret for you and three or your classmates ganging up on a classmate (a "wimp"); or for your refusal to accept your personal responsibility for damaging his property, and being held accountable for your actions and paying the consequences?

Most adults look back on events such as that from their youth with some regret and humility, ....rather than prideful bragging.

And regret and humility brings adults some hope and reassurance that they have matured and become better persons. The absence of such reflections as an adult could be described as sociopathy.

George, I sure hope this military school was not one of the United States Military Service Academies, because I know that those institutions pride themselves on teaching honor, and character, and valor and citizenship and personal responsibility.

With your own words you have suggested that you graduated from military school without having honed those core values, and that is really a shame.

I mean no ill will, George. I'm only suggesting it's never too late to learn a life lesson. It all starts with personal reflection. And sometimes it helps to see how our actions are reflected in other's eyes.

Lizzie (1.27) - He had to average more than 2.5 pennies per day. 62000 pennies / 12784 days = 4.85 pennies/day

It's worse that you don't know that pennies, not penny's, is the plural of penny. :(

Thank you professor, but no class on week end. :) Chill n enjoy.

Always a grammar and spelling policeman in a thread. For God's sake give it a rest.

Yeah!

I can't wait for the republicans to do away with the Department of Education.

Once all Americans are uneducated, no one will notice grammatical ignorance.

Then, the whole country can be stupid on the same level.

God Bless America.

Americans can't spell, not even something simple like "pennies". When you correct them, they get all mad. Then they see on CNN that the US is severely behind industrialized countries in academics, and they are shocked. Shocked !

Americans can't spell, not even something simple like "pennies".

Speak for yourself. I am American and know how to spell pennies. And since we're playing grammar police, the period goes inside the quote, genius.

Keep up the corrections! It's easy to forget the easy stuff. I had to have someone tell me that the synonym for "also" was "too", not "to". People still knew what I meant, but it's good to know and now I do. I'm not even sure at what point in my life I started using "to" to mean "also", but it happened and got corrected in one of these.

"Speak for yourself. I am American and know how to spell pennies. And since we're playing grammar police, the period goes inside the quote, genius."

No, it doesn't. If the entire sentence were a quote it would, but not when only one word is being emphasized.

The period can be outside or inside the quotation mark, both are grammatically correct. It's more a choice of style than anything else. I prefer to leave periods inside because I'm sexy like that.

No, it doesn't. If the entire sentence were a quote it would, but not when only one word is being emphasized.

No, ctviking was correct.

The rules quoted below are from this link: http://grammartips.homestead.com/inside.html

When it comes to commas and periods, though, logic doesn't enter into the equation, at least not in the United States. Universal American usage places commas and periods inside the quotation marks, regardless of logic.

This rule applies even when the unit enclosed at the end of the sentence is just a single word rather than an actual quotation.

The only exception is when that last little item enclosed in quotation marks is just a letter or a number, in which case the period or comma will go outside the closing quotation marks.

Question marks are another matter.

As if it matters (and as if this whole debate is not entirely off-subject):

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2011/05/the_rise_of_logical_punctuation.html

Can we all just get along (and actually keep these discussions focused on the actual subject of the thread)?

THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT! If you all don't stop it right now, I'm going to pull this blog over, turn it around, and we'll all just go back home right this minute! NO POOL! NO ICE CREAM!

NevadaJ-577866

Yeah!

I can't wait for the republicans to do away with the Department of Education.

Once all Americans are uneducated, no one will notice grammatical ignorance.

Then, the whole country can be stupid on the same level.

God Bless America.

I cant wait either....the dept of education is so ass backwards...kids arent learning anymore...better off taking them to private school or homeschooling! My friends son, a freshman in h.s. was taught this past semester that obama has turned this economy around and that things are great! If he is taught that, the school needs to go to school!

Just remember this, class:

It's (with the apostrophe) means "it is" (or "it has"). It's twelve o'clock.

Its (without the apostrophe) means that "it" owns something. The cat chased its tail.

Now let that be a lesson to you!

.

....and don't get me started on the way most people fail to use the serial comma correctly!!

.

All you people involved in this correct spelling indictment are crazy and is exactly why politicians can get away with what they do, and why this country cant get back on its feet. Sooo easily distracted by the smallest, least important things. God Help the pea brains of this country. The point of the article is that the man saved pennies and made them work in his favor..not how long he had a mortgage or if he took a second mortgage but the fact that money adds up over time. How many people here even fact check the important issues of the day? Hmnnn..screw the important stuff.

I am a teacher...the way I teach my students is I put the quote inside a speech bubble, then I ask them where they would put the end mark. They automatically say inside. That helps them to remember that the end mark goes inside the quotation marks since the quotation marks act as the speech bubble.

And huby....to make you happy: I think it is awesome that guy spent 35 years collecting pennies to pay off $620 in mortgage.

ConservativeNotRepublican

THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT! If you all don't stop it right now, I'm going to pull this blog over, turn it around, and we'll all just go back home right this minute! NO POOL! NO ICE CREAM!

Bwahahahahahahahahaha!!! ROFLMAO.... Good one!

I for one find it amusing that y'all will sit around a critique grammar, but yet the worst offender is usually the author of the article, for goodness sake people this is a comment section not a college thesis!

So, you're saying the proper use of our language isn't importantant, and people that are concerned about it are somehow less intelligent? That's an interesting view.

BMette wrote:

"Just remember this, class: It's (with the apostrophe) means "it is" (or "it has"). It's twelve o'clock. Its (without the apostrophe) means that "it" owns something. The cat chased its tail. Now let that be a lesson to you! .....and don't get me started on the way most people fail to use the serial comma correctly!!

Um, TWO exclamation marks, Professor BMette?

(Sorry. Just ignore me. I'm just being snarky)

:-)

Retired RN

No, it doesn't. If the entire sentence were a quote it would, but not when only one word is being emphasized.

You may want to consult the newest edition of the APA manual 6th edition of how to properly cite! Purdue provides good citations if you prefer to go online and stay in the academic setting. Things have changed a bit since you were a student so the oversight is understandable. The determination of a punctuation mark is not limited to one word or a sentence. The current manual is over 250 pages. Enjoy!

Spelling something correctly is vastly different then using correct grammar on a blog.

Most people should know how to correctly spell pennies.

Also, the punctuation goes inside the quote if it's an actual quote. If you are calling out or emphasizing something, then the punctuation goes outside the quote marks.

Hey, NevadaJ,

Ronald Reagan promised to shut down the Department of Education, but he never did it. Good Democrat that I am, I've always held this against him.

The Department of Education has visited more disasters on public education than Japan has earthquakes. I'll vote for anyone who will promise to get the educated idiots who run that fiasco off the backs of teachers, administrators, and local school districts.

OMG! How did we get from a guy paying his mortgage payment in pennies to a sh@tload of English majors? Give it a rest people, stay on-topic or don't say anything at all!

Who gives a flying f&@#!

if the people on this blog was concerned about the way this great nation is going down the tubes as much as they are about grammar we would all be better off

pedagoguish...

Don't remember reagan wanting to do that, but I too am sorry that he didn't at the federalo level.

At the federal level the department of education needs only to set national goals for the states to achieve. Seems that 3-4 bureacrats/state and a very small commitee to establish policy is all that would be needed. Just to much duplication between the federal and state levels as it stands today.

Whiskey eye: The word "pennies" being misspelled is a prime example of how this nation is going down the tubes.

I am thrilled to see so many positive comments about the use of proper grammar and spelling. We do learn from each other in many ways, and one of them is on these threads.

I suspect people who misspell a word--not just a typo, but a genuine misspelling--really don't know any better. So what better place to learn than . . . wherever we are!

While I am generally considered to be very good at spelling and grammar, I often have the Dictionary.com site open to double check words like "doublecheck" and "whereever." The site listed above:

http://grammartips.homestead.com/inside.html

is an interesting one, too.

It would be nice to see additional pleasant discussions on this topic, where we could learn from each other. I don't like seeing our standards continuing to drop to lower than China's and many other countries (where I would not choose to live).

Great job, folks!

None of you are making any cents! :D

Ever notice how these grammar arguments seem to escalate into full blown brouhahas. Makes me think it's a slow news day.

...and just to take this to the next level:

They are NOT "Pennies". They are CENTS.

Each one of them is one one-hundredth of a Dollar. The United States has NEVER minted a penny, ever. The smallest two denominations of the Dollar were the Cent and Half Cent, both began in 1793. (Our mint opened officially in 1792). The Half Cent was discontinued after 1857.

The word "penny" is a British word. It refers to a denomination of money within their old pre-decimal system. There was a penny, (1 D.) a half penny (1/2 D.) and a farthing (1/4 D.). The British monetary system was based on eights, NOT tens or hundreds, as ours is and has been since our mint opened in 1792.

This situation is called a "verbal monopoly"; similar to how we refer to all facial tissues as "Kleenex" even if it's not made by the Kleenex company. We English speaking people of European descent have been calling two of the smallest denomination copper coins used here in North America "Penny" and "half Penny" for centuries, so it stuck.

It reads "PENNIES" on the bank trays, and "PENNIES" on the paper wrappers, but it reads "ONE CENT" on the coin itself, and always has. You will never find a coin that reads "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ~ ONE PENNY".

Grammar police level: forever alone at the top. LOL

As a proofreader for 17 years I can state with certainty that the period goes inside the quotes. The Chicago Manual of Style is a good source for grammatical questions of this sort.

Also, from grammarbook.com ...

Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, even inside single quotes.

Always a grammar and spelling policeman in a thread. For God's sake give it a rest.

It's stuff like this that make the US look stupid to the rest of the world. Public schools have given up teaching calligrpahy, and now everybody signs their names like a 3rd grader. Your lack of understanding of setting minimal standards is appalling.

Public schools have given up teaching calligrpahy

I couldn't resist. You probably mean "calligraphy", or maybe really "cursive."

Note what I did with that ".."

SClarke,

"You probably mean "calligraphy", or maybe really "cursive.""

I don't think typing qualifies as calligraphy though it may be cursive depending on the font you are using.

What a delightful OT thread. People actually discussing spelling and grammar. Maybe there is hope for this country!

To quote wje37:

Ever notice how these grammar arguments seem to escalate into full blown brouhahas. Makes me think it's a slow news day.

Now that's interesting. I didn't read any argument, just a discussion on grammar and usage in the US. To me the arguments on Newsvine are nearly all political, with each side slamming the other, often using words our mothers wouldn't have approved of. This? A free exchange of ideas!

Your use of the word "brouhaha" troubled me, so I went back to Dictionary.com to check the meaning. And guess what? The very FIRST meaning of "brouhaha" is "excited public interest, discussion, or the like." By that definition, yes, it is a brouhaha!

My brief two cents' worth: The first step toward discussing the issues of the day like gentlemen, is be able to express ourselves like gentlemen. Grammar, syntax and usage do matter. It would be a real pity to watch American English evolve (or disintegrate) to the level of some rants posted to the Vine.

Grammar police level: forever alone at the top. LOL.

Well, almost, 99octane. The word following a colon should be capitalized, and preceded by two spaces, the same as when using a period. I can't really tell if you used two spaces or one as the blanks tend to get compressed in these posts, but I just thought I'd throw that in for informational purposes. The word following a comma or semi-colon is not capitalized, and is preceded by one space. Man, we're REALLY getting nit-picky here, aren't we? I love it! Technically, though, I believe we're actually debating punctuation, not grammar. Or is punctuation a subset of grammar? I'm not exactly sure. You write very well, 99octane. Thanks for a very informative post. And to you half-ass nay-sayers: Whether you realize it or not, your spelling, grammar, punctuation, and general command of the language say a lot about you.

Regarding punctuation inside or outside quotation marks, both are correct. In the British style of writing, the period goes outside if it's not part of a sentence within quotes.

In the US style, it goes inside. Now can we please stop all this bloody bickering over style?

You are correct, MLD, about where the quotes should be placed.

But why on earth do you see it as bickering? There is no bickering going on, just discussion--and I assure you, there is a huge difference!

As Bill Marvell so eloquently put it:

Grammar, syntax and usage do matter. It would be a real pity to watch American English evolve (or disintegrate) to the level of some rants posted to the Vine.

"Rants," as you so politely put them, can be very unpleasant. Even if I agree with 99% of what someone is posting, when they devolve into calling each other names and using four-letter words or pseudonym's thereof, I can't in my heart give them a "check."

GA Dude, I'm glad to hear from you! You stated:

The word following a colon should be capitalized, and preceded by two spaces, the same as when using a period. I can't really tell if you used two spaces or one as the blanks tend to get compressed in these posts, but I just thought I'd throw that in for informational purposes. The word following a comma or semi-colon is not capitalized, and is preceded by one space.

These were certainly the rules pre-Internet. However, they have evolved somewhat with the net. There are times when a word after a colon doesn't need to be capitalized. Also, the Internet convention has moved toward having one space after a comma, not two. I was roundly criticized by my writers for insisting on having two spaces after a period for a book I produced recently. Once the completed book was in my hands, I was absolutely horrified to see that the publisher had taken the liberty of removing the second space after the period! They insisted that it was "common usage" at this time. My position is that just because it is "common usage" does not make it right!

I thank all of you for this very interesting--even if off-topic--discussion!

ConservativeNotRepublican

THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT! If you all don't stop it right now, I'm going to pull this blog over, turn it around, and we'll all just go back home right this minute! NO POOL! NO ICE CREAM!

Laughs-- I enjoyed that thoroughly.

For the folks that have to consult a dictionary, you should honestly try Mozilla Firefox. Firefox has a built in spell checker. Stop the insanity with IE.

Sorry didn't mean to interrupt, carry on! I have learned more from these posts than I learned in my college writing class.

To some what stay on topic- I go to the self check-out lines and use all my change in their machines. LOL

And since we're playing grammar police, the period goes inside the quote, genius.

You're wrong.

A period would only go "inside the quotes" when writing dialogue or citing an actual quotation.

Otherwise, it goes outside the quotation (not quote) marks. The word or words inside the quotation marks are not the entire sentence. A period ends a sentence, ie, the complete thought being expressed, not a word or words in quotation marks, even if that word happens to be at the close of the sentence. This is how we were taught in the 60s & 70s. And for what it's worth, I'm a teacher, too.

I can't believe there are ppl purporting to be English teachers disagreeing w/ that & furthermore teaching students to do it incorrectly! I suspect y'all were very recently educated by someone else who was doing it incorrectly. I bet you let them get away w/ not spelling out numbers, too. That incorrect period usage that you are teaching is losing students pts when their standardized testing essays are scored.

Basic grammar is in the toilet in the US right on top of basic spelling. 75% of the ppl posting don't even know the difference btwn 3rd grade words like *there* & *their* & *they're*, or *your & *you're*, let alone how to make a word like *pennies* plural.

Firefox has a built in spell checker.

So does this post box. It's the little checkmark icon w/ the ABC above it. It has nothing to do w/ browser choice & everything to do w/ being lazy. (It also says *Firefox* isn't a word.)

I am amongst those who value proper usage of language (though I often make mistakes). While I do not agree, I can understand some considering the matter trivial. But what offends me is the implication that "grammar police" are easily distracted and focused on nothing more. This couldn't be further from the truth. I have concern for the economy, the environment, and everything else from space exploration to what I'll eat for breakfast tomorrow. The conversation took a turn, and numerous posters felt it was worth continuing. It does not preclude any interest or concern in the article's subject or anything else.

Life is at its best when balance is maintained, and I think for most people, life feels out of balance. Some folks like everything to be run by rules; others want complete freedom. Look at the greatest historical advances in art and science. Those innovators worked hard and learned well the rules of their field before breaking them. The rules of anything must first be learned and mastered in order to break them meaningfully and with reason.

Therein lies our problem. Few are learning the rules and live their lives breaking them without meaningful result. I see the lack of education in this "trivial" issue as a symptom of a larger problem in which the most recent generations of Americans are being raised to shun rules of any sort.

HN-1558401,

I believe you are correct that there is a trend toward shunning any type of rules. There is also a trend toward looking at the educated and intellectual in a negative way. When I was growing up we used to call these folks nerds, but in reality, we respected their abilities and at least secretly desired to have their knowledge and discipline.

Life does present us with some silly rules in some cases. But we need to be able to make the distinction and understand the intent. Rules have their own context.

When it comes to the written word, things have gotten really screwed up with the advent of texting and Tweeting. Spell check is nice, but simple versions don't consider context and often have problems with some plurals and homophones. Spell check leads us to no proof reading. Most spell checks don't address grammar and punctuation very well either.

I suppose it is a matter of what you are used to, but I believe in logical punctuation. I think that is particularly useful in conversational formats like these comment boards. It may be different in a technical type text, but on these boards we want people to read it like we say it. Logical punctuation can help things flow better in order to simulate the spoken word, without having to backtrack to analyze what was meant. Ideally, people can read what we wrote and thoroughly understand how it would sound if we spoke it, and even get a sense of the intonation of our words. If you ever have to give a speech or presentation from written text, logical punctuation is very valuable, and even some "over-use" of punctuation helps keep the tone right.

Some of our rules regarding grammar and puctuation don't always make sense and are not always logical. Over time and through common usage, these rules do eventually tend to change or become accepting to practices that make something more clear and concise. That's a good thing, but it is different than throwing out all the rules.

We live in a world today where the written and spoken word are often taken out of context to make a point that is different than the original speaker or writer intended. In my opinion, intent and context are the most important things in either spoken or written communication. I can overlook the occasional "stretching of a rule", mis-application of punctuation or technically improper grammar, as long as it doesn't detract from the message intended. However, when it is very basic and frequently evident, it does seem to say something about the author and tends to create a negative view of the value and credibility of the statement.

Lastly, I apologize for being off topic. But when you get right down to it, although mildly interesting and entertaining, this was a pretty lame story. It's not particularly news worthy or controversial.

scar_tissue,

"75% of the ppl posting don't even know the difference btwn 3rd grade words like *there* & *their* & *they're*, or *your & *you're*"

I don't think that's entirely true. Some may not know the difference, but I know very well the difference between those words: "There" is an adverb of location, "their" is a third person plural possessive pronoun, "they're" is a contraction of the pronoun "they" with the verb "are", "your" is a second person singular or plural possessive pronoun, and "you're" is a contraction of the pronoun "you" and the verb "are". Yet even I occasionally type the wrong word because "there", "their", and "they're" are homonyms as are "your" and "you're". Because they sound the same, if you are not thinking clearly, perhaps you are half asleep while typing, as I am now, it's easy to make the mistake of using the wrong spelling.

Well it would be correct, Firefox isn't a word. Strange, Firefox shows on my Modzilla as a word, however, Modzilla isn't a word.. Go figure.

English after all is the hardest language to master and with all the changes that keep happening with the format, I am not shocked none of you are perfect. My college courses all required us to use the MLA format, not the APA format. My instructor had told us the MLA format had changed in the last two years, so someone newer and better will always come along.

Where are you Conservative these guys are being rebellious.

Calico,

You are right that English is difficult to master, although when I studied Spanish I had some difficulty with the additional tenses of the verbs that we don't have in English! I think there are probably other languages that would be more difficult for me . . . Chinese, Russian, and so on.

I always thought the term was "Mozilla," not "Modzilla." I Googled it, and it turns out that "Modzilla" has many different meanings: it's a web site design company, a pop/rock band in Philadelphia, a maker of plastic laundry carts, and many other things.

The actual term you are looking for is "Mozilla," at least here in the US. One web site based in the UK,

http://www.myfirefox.co.uk/modzilla-firefox

also showed a large number of other variations, such as "Mozzarella Firefox," which all seem to lead back to "Mozilla."

Hope that helps. It was a fun little piece of research for me! (Yikes, not that I need any more diversions to fill up my time!)

Mickey: I've done that a million times. Often, if I'm in a hurry, I won't proofread as thoroughly as I should, and will later catch a mistake, such as using their instead of there, or your instead of you're.

Those are common mistakes. My personal rule of thumb has always been that if I can understand the point "they're" trying to get across, then I overlook common errors.

I believe such errors have little basis in fact as adequate reason to belittle the intelligence of someone else. Life is too short to endlessly worry about such things in my opinion. If I can understand what they are saying, then I'm not going to obsess over a common mistake.

ConservativeNotRepublican,

"I believe such errors have little basis in fact as adequate reason to belittle the intelligence of someone else."

I agree with you. Criticism for such things only creates friction and hard feelings and was probably just a mistake anyway.

WOW is all I can post...

Callico: I guess the xbox is the next thing to go.

ConservativeNotRepublican, Mickey: I'm sure we all make inadvertent slips from time to time. I don't always proofread as thoroughly as I should either. And some of these points (whether a period goes inside or outside the quotation marks, for example) are fairly trivial. I'm not going to fault someone for something like that. Especially considering that the generally accepted rules sometimes change over time, as some posters have pointed out. On the other hand, if someone repeatedly makes the same type of error, or their post is filled with errors, it becomes obvious that the cause is not mere carelessness, but a fundamental lack of knowledge on the part of the writer.

Conservative: Get the belt we are beyond groundings and time-outs. Or do like my step-father made me do- pick my own switch.

Some of the posters had to face obstacles in their youth. Some people on here have had to conquer diversity, learning disabilities, and other major obstacles to learning.

Would any of you correct your grandparents, because education back then wasn't like it was today? My grandfather had to drop out in middle school to help his mother after his father died to support his siblings. I will also hear there is no excuse for the youth of today, but I will take the good with the bad and enjoy reading how others express themselves.

GAdude:

it becomes obvious that the cause is not mere carelessness, but a fundamental lack of knowledge on the part of the writer.

I would agree with that as well. However, I don't see lack of knowledge as necessarily being indicative of the level of intelligence.

As you pointed out, the period inside or outside the quotation marks is pretty trivial. So, in just looking back over the various postings of this thread, I didn't see any that were so poorly written that I wasn't able to understand whatever particular point someone was attempting to make.

I tend to put more emphasis on what a poster is trying to say, rather than so much on the nuts and bolts of how they said it. Speaking only for myself, since we all make mistakes from time to time, that philosophy just works best for me.

GAdude,

"Especially considering that the generally accepted rules sometimes change over time, as some posters have pointed out."

Not only do rules of punctuation change, entire languages change over time as well. Latin became modern French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. Anglo-Saxon became modern English. The sentence, "In six days heaven and earth, sun and moon, sea and fish were created" (from the Bible) in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) was "On siex dagum waeron geworhte heofonas and eorthe, sunne and mona, sae and fiscas". If you could go back in time to 10th. century England you would scarcely understand a word that was being said around you, so different was the English language then. So from a linguistic point of view, today's grammar mistakes are tomorrow's standard English. One linguist even wrote a book entitled Leave Your Language Alone in which he advocated simply accepting "bad" English as a normal part of language change. The difference between linguists and English teachers is that the former study language as it is actually spoken and written (descriptive grammar) whereas English teachers study and teach the language as it "ought" to be spoken and written (prescriptive grammar). They are in effect "grammatical moralists". While I don't agree entirely with the author of Leave Your Language Alone, he is right in pointing out that all languages do in fact change over time, and that what is considered incorrect today may be accepted as perfectly correct at some time in the future.

Now, now, their, their! Needing to no weather the punctuation goes inside rather then outside is important two. Some of you people need to farther you're educations.

the thinker,

Rat.

Mickey: You're correct in saying that the language of 10th-century England would be unrecognizable to modern-day English speakers. If I'm not mistaken, though, that abrupt change was forced upon the English by the Norman conquest, which had the result of infusing their language with a lot of French words which are, of course, Latin-based. I sometimes feel that modern English is under assault from grammar-averse people, so maybe an invasion and conquest is suitably analogous to what we are facing today. I may be fighting a losing battle. I'd hate to think, though, that in another generation, penny's might be accepted as the the plural of penny. I'm not ready for that yet.

ConservativeNotRepublican: I wasn't implying that a person's level of knowledge is indicative of their intelligence. Two totally different things. The vast majority of people are capable of improving their writing skills if they're so inclined, which makes it all the more frustrating and incomprehensible to me when I hear some folks insist that good grammar and good writing don't matter. Those things aren't hard to learn, for anyone of average intelligence.

CalicoWhispers: I believe the word you're looking for is adversity, not diversity. (Sorry, couldn't resist a parting shot.) :D

I've enjoyed hearing what you all have to say on this topic, though. I've read more posts by articulate, literate people on this thread than on any other. Maybe there is hope after all.

What was the amount of interest this man paid in 35yrs the average home back then was $50,000 I know ther is someone that can give us a ball park figure?

Depends what the interest rate was and if it was fixed or variable Ready.

Because.

Just google it, there are formulas on both the future and past values of money over time.

I tried to do that american but I didn't know if they had a fixed or variable I guess I could've done it both ways at 5% but what fun would that be for everyone else? ;)

You are probably right duuug. Most states have a law that says something along those lines. But given the occassional shortage in pennies that banks have, getting $620 worth is something they will live with...

Why not? Banks have machines that count money. If it was done in good humor the best thing the bank could do would be to take it in stride and have a laugh too. Even if it wasn't done in good humor it would be the best thing to do either way.

Pretty sure they have to take take "legal tender". I think the only stipulation is that is has to be rolled for the bank to manage it.

Actually they had to unroll them so they could put them through the counter. Most banks would rather have loose change and not rolled because of that.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that most banks have coin counters because they don't. What most banks do require is that you to roll the coins before you bring it in. If the pennies were not rolled first they most likely would not have been accepted. That must have taken a lot of time just sitting down and filling those paper rolls.

Was a time when a bank teller could tell by the way a roll of coins felt if it was counted correctly. These days they struggle counting out your money if you happen to be crazy enough to go inside.

mj-1451595 your right I use to be able to tell by the feel of the roll and its weight. Judging by feel is not an exact science however and it would still require you to open up the rolls and count. I use to be able to judge as to whether or not a bill was counterfeit by the feel of the paper. In an effort to discourage counterfeiting they changed the feel of the paper and now I cannot tell as easily.

You also have to write your name & account number on each roll.

That changes with each bank you a dealing with. Some require it while others do not. I've worked with 5 seperate banks and not one required your name to be written on it but some required your account number to be listed.

I've seen articles about people arrested and charged with disorderly persons offenses for paying with pennies.

Guess it's who you are and not what you do. That guy only tried to pay a $25 dollar payment in pennies, and this guy got off paying 60 grand in pennies and has this article written about him as if he's some sort of champion.

-Jason

He didn't pay "60 grand in pennies," as you stated. He paid WITH 62,000 pennies which is really only $620.

This reminds me of Cramer. when he went to buy lunch for George's boss, and tried to pay with his pocket full of pennies.

This is something that banks generally would do. If he was not acting arrogantly and worked with the branch as to when and how he would bring in these pennies there would be no reason for any problem. The truth is that while it might be a royal pain to count all these pennies most of the time the branch personnel would get almost as much of a kick out of it as he did.

Jason - 2034574 He used 62,000 pennies which total $620, not a huge sum of money but a lot of pennies.

Shhh! I was about to give Jason 62,000 pennies for $62,000. You almost ruined it!

@ duuug:

Under U.S. law, a penny is legal tender for all debts public and private. If legal tender is presented as payment and the payment is refused, the debt is still completed.

Federal law trumps state law.

All it wold take is for someone to file suit in federal court against a business for not accepting pennies as payment and the plaintiff would win.

Do you have particular case law you are referencing, hdrider?

I don't do it often, but when I bought something from a friend, he insisted on giving me change, and all he had was 2 rolls of nickels. I took them and about a year later walked to the counter and got $4.00 for them. I never even opened them up. I should have. They could have all been Buffalo nickels.

SO what if the bank had to open the penny rolls? Its about time they earn their money in an honest way..the old fashioned way.

I had an interesting experience along these lines a couple of years ago. When my City did away with conventional coin-fed parking meters (and switched to machines on each block which take credit/debit cards and paper money and dispense window stickers) I took my accumulated parking meter change -- about 60 bucks worth -- to my local Bank of America branch, to deposit to my bank account.

They accepted it, but rather than counting it they put it into a cloth bag, and they had me note in writing the estimated value/amount and then they gave me a "provisional receipt" (and they put a copy of that receipt with my account number in the bag). The provisional receipt noted that the amount would be counted, and the actual amount determined would be deposited into my account within 5 business days.

I got the impression that they didn't count change at the local branch but rather had that function consolidated somewhere else; which when you think about it makes a whole lot of sense for speeding the teller counter-service for merchants who submit such deposits every day.

Footnote: I LOVED this story. I'm sure it was VERY meaningful to the mortgage holders, and I imagine the bank employees shared in that moment and shared in the joy. After all, isn't that what life's all about? Share the joy, discard the rest ....

Go to snopes.com & look it up, according to them all US coins are legal tender if the merchant doesn't specify in advance that they don't accept them. The coinage act of 1965.

mj...was there also a time that you used to walk 10 miles to school in the snow every day...uphill BOTH ways? And do you also get angry at those kids for walking on your lawn?

hdrider...whoa...federal law trumpts state law? Wow...that may be the most ignorant thing I have ever heard. at least the way you worded it.

GOOD

Good news is the penny anymore is only copper coated. A penny today is a lot lighter then a penny from 1970

While it is slightly lighter it still must have taken a wheel barrel to bring them in. I wish I could see the look on the tellers faces when he walked into the branch.

I wonder whether those bank tellers who were able to tell, "to the penny", whether a roll of coins had the correct amount in them by feel alone, would be able to make anything of the "lighter than air" coins that are produced today.

It seems like they get lighter and more weightless (worthless?) every year!

@david1159:

"While it is slightly lighter it still must have taken a wheel barrel to bring them in."

I don't know what a "wheel barrel" is?

But I think he might have used a wheelbarrow.

;-)

They didn't count it. They had to unroll them to dump them in a coin counting machine I would think...

I sorry but that is not true. It doesn't matter what bank they walked into he left some lowly teller, probably tellers, to sit down and count and double count each one. This is not a gotcha at the bank because they don't really care. This is a gotcha for the person at the lowest end of the totem poll at the bank.

I don't know whether or not if there would be a fee on a personal account like this but if it were a business account there most certainly would be. It might be possible that they would charge him a research fee but that is somewhat of a stretch.

David I have no idea where you get your information. Most ALL banks and credit unions have counting machines for coin as well as bills. Even the smallest little home town credit union in my town has both machines behind the teller line.

Bill counting machines yes but coin counting machines I'm sorry but no. I worked for 5 different banks for 15 years and not one had a coin counting machine. Not only are they expensive but they also are broken almost as many times as they are working. While it is more common to see them now than it use to be it is still somewhat rare. Credit Unions oddly enough are more likely to have them than banks are. Credit Unions are more customer centered than banks are and thus more likely to have them on site.

I work at a small hometown bank with 10 branches. None of them have coin counting machines. When we receive this much coin, we "crack" the rolls (unroll them) and pour them into bags to be shipped back to the Federal Reserve. Anything over or short hits a tolerance account for the bank.
BTW, cracking the rolls means smacking them against the edge of the counter to crack the paper rolls. Just before someone thinks we're smoking it in the vault...
And I hope my grammar is correct.

Awe gee that stopped letting you smoke in the vault too??

This posted twice . . . hopefully it's fixed now!

My little town has a Financial Center (main office with all banking services) and three branches. It has been around for about 120 years, and it has been owned by the same families since the beginning. They have coin counting machines at all but the very tiny, historical branch.

Vader, your grammar looks good to me! You expressed your content very well--it was quite understandable, which is the point, isn't it? Since you expressed concern, there are a couple of small punctuation improvements that could be made:

1. In your first paragraph, there should be a comma after the close parentheses mark before the "and." That's the "commas in a series" rule.

2. Near the end, you use an ellipsis to point out your aposiopesis (new word today for me!), three periods like this: "smoking in a vault..." The periods actually each should have spaces before them, so it should actually be "smoking in a vault . . ."

To verify that I was spelling "ellipsis" correctly, I went to Dictionary.com, which led me to Wikipedia, which stated:

An ellipsis can also be used to indicate an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis), example: "But I thought he was . . ."

Since I had never heard the word "aposiopesis" before, I had to check it out:

a figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue.

I would call that some fairly useless trivia for the day!

Thanks for caring, Vader.

Kirigami, thank you. Finding that particular little tidbit of information concerning what is now My favorite new word as well - aposiopesis - was worth the drift from the original intention to read the comments about the Story.

david1159..........If none of the 5 banks you worked at had coin counting machines, how do you know that they are always broken ? Actually they are quite common .

Had a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath townhome with a payment of $497 a month in the 90's. Depends on whether you care what people think of you and how you live within your means as to how much you pay. Of course, now that same home is selling for 70 thousand more than I sold it for 12 years ago. Who would have figured?

Me, too. Hopefully, the bank got some advertising out of the whole thing. They could have probably not accepted it, but good for them.

I still pick up pennies when I see them. I don't care.

In pennies from 1974-1975 and newer, I doubt it.

But he's been collecting for 35 years. So there are probably some older pennies in those rolls.

I just got a 1953 penny in change, yesterday.

Try 1,240 rolls of pennies. A roll is only 50 pennies.

I really shouldn't even respond to this but here goes:

$620 in pennies is equal to 1,240 rolls of pennies, not 620 rolls of pennies.

Roll up $10 worth of pennies and you will get a general idea of how many rolls there actually were.

$62,000 in pennies is 62,000 x 100 which is...........keep up with the teacher..........

As penny rolls usually contain 50¢ in pennies, it's actually 1,240 rolls, but your point is still valid, at least on the surface (see below). I can only surmise that they weren't working on this task exclusively and non-stop for the whole of the two days.

Call it 20 seconds to unroll or unwrap a roll of pennies and dump it into the counter (or wherever). We don't know how well-wrapped they were... the rolls could have been taped. So, at 20 seconds per 50-cent roll, that's $1.50 per minute, or $90.00 in pennies unwrapped per hour. That would take one person about 7 hours to complete if he or she worked non-stop, with no breaks, distractions, or other tasks, ONLY unrolling pennies, and maintained the same pace the whole time. So actually, in the real world, two days suddenly sounds a lot more plausible!

Public school?

That's 1240 rolls at 50cents each but even at that a snail could crack four rolls a minute and be done in five hours. The idea of getting ripped off at the bank just doesn't startle anymore.

It depends on the age of the teller, these young people today can steal my credit cards on the Internet but can't count my change back, whats up with that?

OK, it's 1240 rolls. Can I have my head back please??

My point is still valid. It's still just a couple of hours work (max) for one person.

And BTW Scott....the article doesn't say 62,000 DOLLARS worth of pennies. It says 62,000 pennies. Period. That's $620. Keep up with the teacher, Scott......

I'm gonna have to go with Thinkforyourself-2427469 on this: Anyone who thinks you could unrap even 3 rolls per minute, non-stop, continuously, for 7 hours has never tried tried to do anything for more than 10 minutes non-stop (or else is already in the looney bin with the worst case of carpel tunnel syndrome in medical annals).

In my opinion, of course.

As Think says,

in the real world, two days suddenly sounds a lot more plausible!

Why would you spend the time unwrapping them? The likelihood of them re-using the wrappers is slim to none, so bang them on the side of the table break it in half and spill them out. Simple.

Bingo. You crack them like eggs. Just ask any supermarket cashier. It only takes a few seconds to dump out a sleeve.

Gee Really, you were the one that typed "Perhaps MSNBC has made (yet another) a mistake?? Perhaps it was $62,000 in pennies??"

And therefore my comment is valid! If you would have thought about it for a sec or two you would have realized your comment was.............well...assinine to say the least.

Is it safe to say you are a "right winger" who speakes (types) before they think?

Hate it for ya! Have a great and fabulous whatever they tell you to do. I actually think for myself and don't have a "party" because they all lie. It is just which level of lying you actually want to belive and follow. Sometimes it is the worse of two evil because there are no other options. How about letting OUR President try to figure it out for 4 more years than elect someone else that will "try to figure it out" over his first four years? None of US know what the job entails until we have sat in that chair. Give Obama a chance to right the wrongs of the 8 years (maybe 5 years) of the Bush/Cheney administration.

Just for fun. $62,000 in pennies would be 6 million 200 thousand pennies, that is 124,000 rolls, if the man saved them over the course of 35 years he would have had to average over 177,000 pennies per year. I think he would need a tractor trailer to get them to the bank.

Scott, you're an idiot. Not a regular idiot but a blithering idiot. I'm surprised you had the guts to return after you put your foot so far into your mouth.

I know what I typed but you were commenting on what you believed was in the story. You were using it to contradict me in a foolish attempt to justify your silly "nanny-nanny-boo-boo I'm smarter than you" (hah!) post. As for the rest of your rambling, mentally unbalanced discharge.....well I found it quite humorous in an idiot-with-egg-on-his-face kind of way.

Look before you leap you babbling, childish fool.

Actually, all pennies right now are worth 2 cents each. Not sure where you could get that price for pennies, but they are still worth double their value.

cowmama, I think it costs the mint that much to produce them the metal is not. The pennies now a days aren't copper just copper coated zinc. I looked it up 1909-1982 penny = 0.0225 cent as of 6/6/12 a 1983-2012 penny 97% zinc = 0.0049 cent in metal value. So the new pennies are worth right at 1/2 cent.

Another reason we are in debt as a nation (per Cowmama) we mint money at a 100% loss in cost....it is time to get rid of pennies and stick to nickels and higher. Just round the cents off to the closest nickel. That is how they do it overseas on military bases to save money and it evens out over time.

I think the dollar is only worth 38 cents, but I will give you 50 cents for every one you can get your hands on.

Your point being??? Whether it is truly called a penny or a cent most still refer to it as a penny.

No point, just stating a fact.........And they would be incorrect

How is one incorrect by referring to the commonly used name of something? It's a one-cent coin, commonly known as the penny, so if you refer to it as a penny, you are not incorrect. If you refer to it as a zebra, you are incorrect.

I worked as a teller for quite a few years and never came anywhere near $20.00 per hour. I wasn't paid that much until I was manager of a branch. What bank do you know of that pays that much I might want to apply for a job?

I worked for a bank for a long time and never saw someone make $20 an hour... Unless you're referring to a credit union.

I checked with credit unions before and their tellers don't come anywhere near $20.00 per hour.

I'm in CA, and locally they do pay around $16-$17 an hour but they also open accounts etc. They also get incentives on top of that... More work, but more pay. I had a few employees go that way but they didn't seem to last long.

Out here in Washington the average pay for tellers ranges somewhere between $11 to $14 per hour. The cost of living out here is somewhat less though and probably accounts for the difference.

I paid my tellers that much to work for my "big bank". That's about average I think, depending on experience. I have never seen a bank pay $20 an hour for a teller. Much like you, I didn't see that kind of money until I was a manager. The image that bank employees are grossly overpaid to do nothing but count money infuriates me.

Too many people who are posting notes here seem to believe that this is a great way to get even with the bank when all they are doing is getting even with some underpaid teller. Hey I thought what he was doing was great and as long as he gave me notice that he was doing it I would be glad to accept it. If he just walked in with his wheel barrow full of change, depending on what was happening that day, I might set up an appointment and tell him to come back later.

Funny and somewhat sad that maids make more than that and also garbage men.

I took over $1500 in change into my bank once. I did warn the manager the day before I brought it in, and had no problem at all.

You don't mark pennies. There simply is no easy way to do it and there isn't any major market in counterfeit pennies. It takes time to unwrap a roll of pennies count them and then wrap them again. Two days to count them sounds about right.

Do Texas Liberals still exist! That is music to my ears, and I am NOT kidding about that!

Hurray for the "pennies guy", but I fear the poster that said he may have overpaid may be right.

It's probably residual he owed....after 35 years of mortgage . It should have been paid off. Maybe he owed that in legal fees to the bank who had to pay people to count the pennies. Cute.

And don't forget they aren't even solid copper (zinc covered in thin layer of copper) so the metal value is about .03 of cent.

Never mind that it's the cranky old T-bags that are the biggest complainers(like usual) when someone suggests we do away with the penny.