Today Andreas Flaten, a Fayetteville, Ga., man finally gets real cash to replace 91,000 pennies that he received for pay from a former employer. Coinstar®, known for its network of coin-counting kiosks, stepped in to help Flaten by picking up the oily, dirty pennies at his home and in return gave him $1,000 in cash. The pennies were originally dumped in Flaten’s driveway and were intended to serve as his final “paycheck.”

“It was a shock and frustrating to be paid in this manner, and it was an extra burden that the pennies were covered with an oily substance,” said Flaten. “I was spending an hour or two a night trying to clean the pennies and probably only cleaned off about $5 worth. I was so relieved and grateful that Coinstar agreed to help me.”

The pennies have been stored in a wheelbarrow in Flaten’s garage over the past few weeks. Today, Coinstar helped transfer the pennies from the wheelbarrow into a transport vehicle where the coins will ultimately be cleaned and processed, and returned to circulation.

“When we heard about Mr. Flaten’s penny problem, we were happy to offer our assistance,” said Jim Gaherity, CEO of Coinstar. “Coinstar has been in the coin business for 30 years and we process approximately 41 billion coins annually – so picking up 91,000 pennies was all in a day’s work.”

Coinstar will also match Flaten’s penny value and donate $1,000 to local charities of his choosing. Two Atlanta-area animal shelters will split the amount.

Coinstar has approximately 18,000 coin-counting kiosks nationwide with 400 kiosks in the greater Atlanta area in locations including Kroger and Wal-Mart.

About Coinstar

Coinstar® is the global leader in self-service coin counting with 23,000 kiosks in North America, Europe, and Japan. More than 800 billion coins have been processed since Coinstar’s inception in the early 1990s. In the United States, consumers can convert their change to cash, a no-fee eGift card, or donate to charity at supermarket, mass merchant, drug store, and financial institution kiosk locations. Expanded cash services at Coinstar kiosks include purchasing cryptocurrencies and adding money into digital accounts. For brand advertisers, Coinstar now offers adPlanet™, which enables lead generation on the interactive kiosk screen and a flexible digital advertising platform that sits atop Coinstar kiosks at select grocery locations. For more information on Coinstar or kiosk locations, visit https://www.coinstar.com.

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Media Contact:
Marci Housley

Mpact Group

425.495.7413

[email protected]