Dick Johnson writes:

To read the complete article, see:
Why a German Banker Spent 6 Months Counting Pennies(http://fortune.com/2017/12/19/why-a-german-banker-spent-6-months-counting-pennies/)

A German bank worker has spent every working day for six months counting 2.5 tonnes of copper coins left by a lorry driver to his relatives.

The family loaded the 1.2 million one and two pfennig coins - obsolete since 2002 when Germany adopted the euro - wrapped in hundreds of freezer bags, into a van and drove to a branch of theBundesbank, the German central bank, in Oldenburg, northern Germany, after the man died in May.

What followed was a monotonous, challenging summer and autumn for Wolfgang Kemereit, the official given the job of cleaning, sorting and counting the money. Each bag took him about an hour and heperformed the task alongside his regular duties.

"I held every coin in my hand," Mr Kemereit told NDR, the broadcaster. "But I like doing things like that so it wasn't a problem." He added that it was not possible to count the money by machinebecause many of the coins were rusty and stuck together. His tally came to €8,000.

The mark can be exchanged free of charge at any of the Bundesbank's 35 branches at an exchange rate fixed at 1.96 marks to €1.

Many Germans mourn the demise of the mark, symbol of their postwar economic miracle. They still hold 12.65 billion marks in piggy banks, drawers, under mattresses and down sofas.

To read the complete article, see:
German banker counts 1.2m pfennig coins left in lorry driver's will(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/german-banker-counts-1-2m-pfennig-coins-left-in-lorry-drivers-will-l8rccjf3s)