James F. Jones of New Miami in Butler County, walked into Jake Sweeney Car Dealers, plunked down 16 coffee cans of coins and said: “I want that Chevy truck,” pointing to a red, 2008 half-ton Chevrolet Silverado. The sales staff couldn’t believe he was serious, but Jones, of New Miami in Butler County, was very serious – and he had $8,000 in coins to back him up.

He had dimes, quarters, half dollars, silver and Susan B. Anthony dollars. It took staff an hour and a half to count all of it. Jones, 70, said he has always kept his personal money in coins because he doesn’t trust banks or paper money. “Paper money will burn, but it is hard to damage coins. I bought four or five rolls of coins each month. I don’t know how long it took me to save this amount, probably all my life, spending some of it now in then,” said Jones, who retired as an engineer from Fort Hamilton Hospital’s maintenance department in 2003.