100 gallons of coins found at bottom of fountain at NC aquarium. How much is that?
Update: The final count was $8,563.71. One person, Amy Campbell, came close to guessing the correct amount at $8,562, officials said. Aquarium staff spent more than 10 hours sending change through a bank’s coin counter to get the total, officials said.
The pandemic has forced a lot of tourist attractions to close for the summer, but that led to a pleasant surprise days ago at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.
Staff decided to clean out a 30-foot water fixture known as the Smoky Mountain waterfall, leading them to 100 gallons of coins thrown in by tourists who mistook it for a wishing well.
The sheer amount of coins has gotten a lot of attention on social media, helped along by an intriguing question posed by aquarium staff on Facebook: “Can you guess how much money was in the waterfall?”
Social media can’t resist a good challenge. More than 1,300 comments were posted, trying to guess the amount since the post went up Saturday, with many revealing their secret lucky numbers in the process. This includes $11,111.11 and $33,333.33.
The highest total guessed may be $459,000, while the lowest is less than $50. A couple of people noted “wishes are priceless!” and got no arguments.
The discovery was coincidentally made as the nation is experiencing a coin shortage, and multiple Facebook commenters joked the aquarium is either responsible for the shortage, or may soon be hailed a hero for solving it with 100 gallons of coins.
So how much does that add up to?
That aquarium, located in coastal Carteret County, posted an update Aug. 12 explaining it’s taking longer than expected to “sort, clean and count coins.”
“Staff is still sifting through the almost 14 years worth of coins from the waterfall,” the update said. “We’ve sent a portion of them to the automated coin counter at a local bank. It took about four hours to get through nine crates of coins! So stay tuned! We’ll post the total amount next week.”
The money “will go toward the general care of the aquarium and animals.”
That inspired more jokes on social media.
“So the government is getting everybody’s wishes! Lol,” a user identified as AngryPirate Chrismon wrote.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 10:49 AM with the headline "100 gallons of coins found at bottom of fountain at NC aquarium. How much is that?."