We’ve all accumulated stuff at some point in our lives.

How many pennies do you think you’d have if you gathered every penny you could find for a month?

What if you saved pennies for a full year?

Consider how much money you’d have if you saved pennies for 45 years.

This man had been collecting pennies for 45 years and amazed his bank tellers when he brought them in.

Otha Anders is a public school teacher from Louisiana.
He began collecting coins in the late 1960s with no intention of amassing wealth; he simply enjoyed doing it.

Even when the government started paying $125 for every $100 of pennies returned, he was uninterested.

He appreciated owning the collection.

Pennies are being collected as an excuse to say a prayer.
Anders stated that he started seeing pennies as a reminder to stop and pray.

“If I see a penny when I’m gassing up, on the ground, or in a store, it would be a reminder to stop right there and say a prayer,” Anders said in an interview with ABC News. “I never missed a beat on it. That’s why they meant so much to me.”

Anders never accepted pennies as a gift from anybody else during his whole penny-collecting career.

“But I never allowed anyone, not even my wife nor children, to give me pennies without being compensated,” he went on to say. “I wanted the inner satisfaction that God and I acquired from this collection.”

Anders grew to value the habit of pausing what he was doing and uttering a prayer every time he saw a coin.

On days when he wasn’t appreciative enough of what he had, a penny would appear in his sights to remind him.

“I became convinced that finding a lost or dropped penny was an extra God-given incentive to always be thankful.” There have been days when I have forgotten to pray, and more often than not, a misplaced or dropped penny has appeared to remind me.”

Using pennies to fill large water containers
Anders gathered pennies and used them to fill large water bottles.

He stated that his first objective was to fill five large water jugs, but after that was accomplished, he felt compelled to continue.

He needed to go to the bank and deposit them, or he’d never do it.

He had filled 15 5-gallon jugs by the time he got to the bank.

“I needed five five-gallon water jugs.” That was my intention, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wasn’t going to stop if I hadn’t handed them in yesterday.”

In addition to the intrinsic value Anders found in collecting the pennies, they also added up to have significant financial value.

He called Origin Bank in Ruston, Louisiana, where he had been a customer for years, after learning that his homeowner’s insurance policy would not cover his collection.

Anders informed them that he would be arriving with a significant quantity of pennies.

They were glad to assist, although it was quite a task.

“We value his business, as we do all of our customers,” said Vice President Jennie Cole of the bank. “But if we can help Anders with his endeavors, we are happy to do so.”

The jars had to be opened with an ax, and the whole process took over 5 hours.

By the end, it was determined that Anders’ coin collection was worth thousands.

Anders ended up collecting 513,614 pennies over the course of those 45 years, which came to a little over $5,136.