According to the seventeenth-century adage, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” No one believes this more than 81-year-old Ira Keys of Slaton, Texas. When he was only 17 years young, and contemplating the future, he heeded the advice of his father: “Whatever you do, son, save your money.” Ira thought that sounded fine, but did not have much money to begin with. So he began to save pennies.
This continued for the next 64 years until finally, this year Ira decided it was time to go to the bank. He was cashing in. Ira gathered up all the pennies into one big, bulging, 500-pound lump, which almost broke the the bed of his pick-up during the trip.
The bank employees were not only surprised at the package but after taking a full hour to count all the coins were probably pretty annoyed. It turned out that over the years, Ira had gathered a total of 81,600 pennies. That meant that he had a grand total of $816. His father’s advice had been right all along.
Ira says that he will continue to save pennies because “Habits are hard to break.” He did add, however, that he doesn’t think he’ll have that many pennies to cash in again.