Ally Bank, in an effort to promote the value of money, has scattered 100 pennies across 10 major metropolitan cities that are worth $1,000 to those who find them. The pennies have the banks logo on them, and they are slightly larger than a regular penny.
Some of the cities where people can find the pennies include Miami, New York, Washington D.C. and Austin, Texas. The promotion is known as the Ally lucky penny and the hope is to prevent people from casually discarding their pennies.
In a video released by Ally, the bank states that a million dollars goes to waste each year, one penny at a time. According to the bank, ten billion pennies are minted each year and half of those pennies are removed from circulation because people place little to no value on the coin. Some people are unaware that billions of pennies are still in circulation.
One man in the video stated, “Pennies, do they still do those anymore?” Some people believe that pennies represent extra clutter, and some say that if they drop their coins, they only pick up the silver and leave the pennies behind.
The bank conducted a test by placing a penny on one of America’s busiest sidewalks. Hours went by, and not one person picked up the penny.
If anyone is lucky enough to find and pick up one of Ally’s pennies, they can redeem them rather easily at a special website created by the bank.
