I hauled that motherfucking heavy jug of change to work and planted it in the middle of the conference room table for everyone at work to see. I put out a sheet of paper for my coworkers to put in their guesses.

The lowest guess was $245. The highest guess was $628.

I also posted it up here on the blog… lowest guess being $137.33, highest being $813.42.

And it was time to cash in, so to say. Figures that I’d decide to do it on the hottest day of the summer. I had barely lugged the thing out the front door of my office, and I’d already worked out a sweat.

I attracted the attention of a korean family that was passing by when I set it down to open up my car. The father let out a long whistle and said “thats a lotta change, boy”.

Finally getting it in the car, I drove the four blocks to the Commerce One Bank. I muttered silent prayers that there’d be an open parking spot near the bank. Preferably right in front of the doors.

I found a spot right around the corner of the building. Close enough. I locked my car and went in the bank to double check that they could do the counting. I wasn’t going to lug that thing in, only to find out the machine was on the fritz or something like that and lug that thing back out.

A cheery-looking black woman sat at one of the teller windows and confirmed to me that yes, I could use the coin counting machine, and no, I didn’t need to be a current account holder. No charges either. Completely free.

That works for me. I indicate to the teller that I’ll be back with a “big jar”. She cheerily waves me out.

Two minutes later, I’m grunting and heaving that jar through the entrance. The teller takes one look at me and stands up and comes around to me. She says “oh wow… you sure weren’t kidding.. i gotta see this!”

I let the jug down on by the coin machine while the teller starts stabbing away at the monitor to get the thing started up. I lift up the jug for, what i pray to be the very last time, and start pouring the coins into the machine.

Halfway through emptying out the jar, the machine stops and dutifully informs us that the coin bag is full. By this time we’ve attracted a quite a few spectators, doing what else, but speculating on how much I’m going to be taking home. The lady empties out one of the coin bags and starts up the machine again. I pour out the last of the coins into the hopper and we stand there, all eyes watching the monitor of the machine while it continues to digest the last of the coins.

And then it pops up. The total sum of three years and some of near daily pocket change.

$762.48

The teller applauds the machine, as if it had just delivered an astounding performance and looks at me and says “wow!”. I stand there holding the now almost weightless jug. Teller reaches down and pulls out a recepit and gives it to me and indicates I can cash out over there.

So… its interesting to see that almost EVERYONE who put in a guess, except for Bob came up short. Way short.

And no, Barry’s guess doesn’t count because I told him the total before he posted here. Disqualified. Try again in three years!