Even since I got my first job coming out of art school, which was back in 1999, I started saving all of my change. Even if I had change on me when I was buying something, I never spent it. For example, if I purchased something that was $4.50 and I had .50 in my pocket, I would go ahead and just use a $5 bill and add to the change I already had on me. It was basically a very easy way of saving small amount's of money that you really don't even notice.
A few years later I won a storage bin auction that contained, among other things, 2 cases of large Detroit Red Wings piggy banks that looks like really big bottles of soda. There were 6 to a case so I wound up with 12 of them. So I started using those to store my change. They are really big as they are 24" high and when full, they are so heavy that I couldn't even move them. I literally had to use my dolly to move them.
Here is a picture of the piggy banks I am talking about. Its 100% identical to the Red Wings banks I won but this one just has a Coca Cola logo on it instead of Detroit Red Wings logo. I am sure they make a ton of different versions of these.
I filled my 11th bottle back at the end of 2014 and my final bank was roughly half full. My wife has actually been hounding me for a couple of years now to finally cash them in as they do take up a good deal of space and thier so heavy, you can't stack them or put them on shelves. I guess the good thing about that is you really don't have to worry about anyone stealing them, lol. Anyways, I wound up winning the Michigan Daily 4 lottery last week and won roughly $2700 and I have been wanting to buy a new solar Telescope from Lunt so I figured now would be a perfect time to cash them in as I figured I would have enough to buy my telescope. The telescope I want is a a double stacked LUNT LS152THA. The scope itself is $9,000 and the double stack filter is $3000 so basically your talking $12,000.
I didn't want to have to use those machines like Coin Star as I can't even imagine how long that would have taken so I called the manager at my bank. I am very friendly with the manager as I rent 4 safety deposit boxes there plus my wife and I both have our accounts there so were in there on a pretty regular basis. So I called him up and told him about my predicament. He told me I could take the coins there and best of all, since it was a cash for cash transaction, there would be no service fee. So I called my buddy who has a pick up truck and he helped me load all the banks into the back of his truck.
We got to the bank and started bringing them in one at a time. Surprisingly, it didn't take long at all. I guess banks have really nice coin sorting machines that can handle really large quantities. All in all, it took about 45 minutes, half of which was us just getting the piggy banks into the bank.
Honestly, I was expecting, or I should say hoping, it was going to be around $7,000-$8,000, but I was prepared for it to be a bit lower. I would have been disappointed if it wound up being less than $6000. Well, lets just say I was in utter shock when I got the finally tally. What I would do to see a picture of the look on my face. The final tally came out to be $14,580, or roughly $1250 per bank. my buddy who helped me is one of my lifelong friends so I wound up giving him $500 for helping me. So my finally tally wound up being closer to $14,000.
Needless to say, I called Lunt first thing this morning and placed an order for my double stacked LUNT LS152THA. And best of all, with the extra money I had, I ordered a CAK blocking filter on top of it. So I can do regular H-alpha viewing or CAK viewing. And best of all, I didn't have to spend a single cent of my lottery winnings. This has been 2 of the best weeks I have had in a long time!!!
Just goes to show, save your change and don't spend it. You just never know what you will be able to buy with it someday!!! The only bad news is the telescope is on back order and it could take up to 4-5 month to receive it! Still, I am a very happy man indeed today!!!
