The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 47, November 21, 2004, Article 18

OHIO MAN TAKES CENT-HOARDING TITLE

  Another massive coin-hoarder has surfaced.  On Ohio man is
  cashing in over 10,000 pounds of cents, a mass so large he
  believes it attracted lightning bolts to his house.  USA Today
  published his story on November 16:

  "To describe Gene Sukie as "penny-wise and pound-foolish"
  would be seriously underestimating the man.  He has, after all,
  collected nearly 10,000 pounds of pennies in his lifetime - the
  greatest  feat of spare change collecting yet recorded.

  The retired glass-factory supervisor, 78, will cash in what
  remains of his record-setting collection of 1,407,550 pennies,
  worth $14,075.50, accumulated over 34 years."

  "Sukie inspected every penny. He separated them by year
  and mint location. He wrapped pennies of the same year and
  mint into 28,851 rolls.

  He stored the fifty-cent rolls in 559 boxes in his basement.

  He documented the contents and date of each roll in a
  loose-leaf binder that is now 3-inches thick. "He is a bit
  meticulous," Violet said.

  Her husband protests good-naturedly that he was not
  obsessed:  "Sometimes I'd go two or three weeks without
  touching a penny."  He pauses: "Then, I'd roll for two or
  three hours. It was very relaxing."

  Until lightning struck, twice.

  Electrical storms knocked out his living room television,
  directly above his penny collection. "I thought the copper in
  pennies may be attracting lightning," Sukie says."

  "Coinstar, a Bellevue, Wash., company with coin-counting
  machines in 11,000 grocery stores, set up two machines to
  count Sukie's pennies and will finish today. The old Coinstar
  record was 792,141 pennies turned in by Sylvester Neal of
  Anchorage, in 2001.

  So what's next for Sukie? He says he may finally have time to
  index his pencil collection."

  USA Story

  [So let me get this straight -- you spend years inventorying
  the exact contents of each roll, then just dump them all into
  a CoinStar machine to tally up the face value?  You don't
  even try to separate the wheatback cents for sale to a
  dealer?  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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