A Chinese man bought a BMW. That’s not exactly news-worthy, right? What makes this worthy of the news is that the man paid for the first installment for the Bimmer entirely with coins that added up to almost $11,000. Our parents did say that the loose change from our piggy banks would come in handy at some point in time.

If this looks like it’s one of those silly hoaxes that always seem to pop up at the start of every year, it’s not. This actually happened in the Putian province over in China. According to local reports, an unnamed man went to a BMW dealership last December 18 to buy a BMW with the intention of settling the first installment of the car using coins he had collected over the years. The dealership’s sales manager, a man, identified as Mr. Go, explained that the customer was in the wholesale business and had accumulated a staggering amount of five mao coins that added up to 70,000 yuan. That’s around $10,800 based on current exchange rates.

Fortunately, the customer found an accommodating dealership that not only agreed to the peculiar downpayment but also helped transport over ten boxes of coins from the customer’s house to the dealership. Video footage also shows a group of salespeople sitting in the dealership counting all the coins.

Before you start getting any ideas, it is important to remember that here in the U.S.; there is no federal statute that mandates a person, private business, or an organization to accept all amounts of currency or coins as payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a State law that says otherwise. That’s one of the reasons why gas stations and convenience stores don’t accept large denominations of currency. So, if you any of you decide to buy a BMW using quarters, you might want to check with the dealership first.

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