Ohio man buys new truck with thousands of coins

Wed Aug 13, 9:21 pm ET

CINCINNATI – An Ohio man who says he doesn't trust paper money has delivered enough coins to cover half the price of a brand new pickup truck.

Employees at a dealership in the Cincinnati suburb of Springdale say 70-year-old James Jones plunked down 16 coffee cans full of coins Tuesday for a new Chevrolet Silverado.

Salesman David Crisswell says employees spent 90 minutes counting the collection of dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollar coins, which covered half the $16,000 price of the pickup.

Jones and his wife, Betty, wrote a check for the other half of the cost.

Jones' son says his dad has always preferred to pay with coins. Dennis Jones says he's most amazed that his penny-pinching father decided to replace his 1981 pickup, which struck his father when its parking brake failed last year, putting him in a hospital.

There is a lot here and to honest I am confused as to what angle to focus on. First, it tell you how bad things are for the dealers these days. I mean, if you are taking coins you are low down, but these weren't even rolled. So the salesman has to spend his day off rolling change - that is after the 90 mins of counting. Are there no Commerce Banks in Ohio?

Is it possible to fit $500 in change in a coffee can? I was never good at those "if train leaves Chicago" questions, but is that possible?

They call him a penny pincher, but I got think that he could have replaced the parking brake on his '81 pick up for a lot less coin. That is my issue with the older generation, they just toss things away after 17 years. I mean replacing a truck b/c of a little thing like a broken parking brake, that results in a hospital stay just seems like the easy way out to me. "Greatest Generation" my ass.