Today, I start my collection of $10 bills

Grandpa Bud always told me that ‘a penny saved is a penny earned.’ He worked the mines in Butte for a lot of his life and from what I know, that was a tough way to earn a buck. His pennies, no doubt, were pinched precisely.

The list of idioms about pennies is a lengthy one. ‘A penny for your thoughts,’ ‘I don’t have two pennies to rub together,’ the ‘bad penny’, ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ and my all-time favorite ‘it costs a pretty penny.’ The list goes on and on, but why do I bring up these little copper dandies today? Let me try to make sense (or cents) of a story I read about this week.

Ira Keys started saving pennies in 1950 and he had done so for the past 65 years. I say “had” because last week the 81-year-old Texan deposited his collections. Reports say Keys had managed to squirrel away 500 pounds of pennies over the past 65-years.

Incredible!

Well played Ian!

Or so I thought. I am not so quick with the math so when I read the headline of the story, I figured that a penny collection built over 65 years would be a fairly large deposit. The story said that it took the bankers about an hour to count all the coins and when the final receipt was printed, our dear friend Ian found out he would be heading home the whopping sum of … drum roll please …$816.

Ugh.

My heart sank for the guy. When I started reading the story I figured a collection of coins that large would at least afford him a nice vacation to an exotic island.

But Ian kept a firm chin and never let the bankers know he was disappointed with his final tally. He told them that he still had “a ton” of pennies back at his house and said he would continue to save pennies because it “has become a bit of a habit.”

I get the feeling that when he finally cashes in the “ton” of pennies that he will be proudly sitting on about $1,600 for his lifetime collection.

Ian didn’t cash in the pennies, but rather deposited them in the bank. I wonder, if he had deposited his pennies on a monthly or yearly basis if the interest wouldn’t have at least doubled his money? I’m about as good with money as I am with math, but Ian’s story has motivated me to pay closer attention how I manage my mullah. I imagine looking back over the past 65-years Ian wishes those pennies would have been quarters -- 500 pounds would be about $40k -- or at least dimes.

I am starting my collection of $10 bills this week. I urge you to follow in my footsteps.

Thanks for reading and aloha.