CHINESE AUTO DEALER COUNTS FIVE MAO COINS

We've all got our own piggy banks at home and wonder what we'd be able to buy with the amount we've saved.

Well, in China, it turns out you'd be able to buy yourself a new car, as a businessman made his first down payment on a BMW in coins.

According to local reports the unnamed man, who works in wholesale business, bought the car for around 400,000 yuan (£45,000/$60,000) on 18 December.

However, he insisted on paying the first instalment in five mao (5p) coins totalling nearly £8,000 ($106,86). That's one way of putting them to use, I suppose.

"They [the coins] were all five maos that the client had been saving over the years. There were worth about 70,000 yuan (£7,954) in total,' said Mr Gu, sales manager of BMW in Putian, Fujian Province to Pear Video.

Workers at the car retailer were forced to spend hours on the shop floor sitting counting the copper coins.

Apparently, they even travelled to the client's house to pick up around 10 boxes of coins. That's some hardcore dedication to making a sale, you have to say.

Sadly you wouldn't be able to get away with this stunt in many other countries. In the UK you'd be lucky to be able to buy a bus ticket if you weren't holding the right change.

This is because countries have different definitions of what is called 'legal tender' - the currency you can legally use to pay off a debt. In the UK this comes in the form of Royal Mint coins (the ones with the Queen's head on) and bank notes.

In the UK there are restrictions on how lower value coins can be used as legal tender. Copper 1p and 2p coins can only be used to pay for debts up to 20p - enough for a Freddo, but not much else.

5p and 10p non-bronze coins can be used for payment not exceeding £5 - handy if you're short when running for a bus. 20p and 50p coins, though, are valid for payments up to £10.

To read the complete article, see:
Man Saved So Much In A Penny Jar He Bought A BMW (http://www.ladbible.com/news/interesting-man-saved-so-much-in-a-penny-jar-he-bought-a-bmw-20171221)

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