Tuesday 19 December 2017

Many Of Us,

at some stage will inherit money from a deceased family member,

which normally is not a problem, a bank transfer or cheque from the executor of the will and that is it, but all was not so simple for family in Bremervörde, Germany, who received an inheritance of over 1.2 million coins weighing around 2.5 tonnes, it all started 30 years ago, when a German truck driver started saving1 pfennig (0.01 Deutsche Mark) and 2 pfennig (0.02 Deutsche Mark) coins for his family, He managed to collect around 1.2 million coins until his death, earlier this year, all of which were inherited by his family, now, Deutsche Marks haven’t been in circulation since 2002, but the Bundesbank  – the central bank of Germany – still exchanges the old currency, so the man’s family were still able to collect their inheritance, the coins had to be delivered by van to the Bundesbank branch in Oldenburg, back in May, where clerk Wolfgang Kemereit was presented with the monumental challenge of counting them by hand, while also seeing to his day-to-day tasks, usually, banks use special machines to count large quantities of coins, but that was impossible in this case, because many of the coins had rusted and become stuck to other coins, so Kemereit had to go through hundreds of freezer bags full of coins by hand, which took him over 6 months, “I held each piece in my hand,” Wolfgang Kemereit recently told NDR 1, “I quite enjoy doing such things, so in that sense it wasn’t a problem.” in case you’re wondering how much the family actually inherited, the 1.2 million coins amounted to the amount of €8,000 euros ($9,400), interestingly, the Bundesbank estimates that Germans are still hoarding around 12.65 billion Deutsche Marks, old notes and coins can be exchanged at the Bundesbank at the rate of 1.95583 marks for one euro, there is no time limit for the exchange, also fees are not due, so the next time you dream of inheriting a ton of money you might want to change your wish to say gold or diamonds, now theres a thought, a ton of diamonds!


No comments: