DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - Though a penny is one cent, it's worth so much more to Shari Grider. Her late father, James Stanely Marsh, was known as the "Penny Man."
"His life was so difficult, and he went through so many different things in this life, but he found happiness in a penny," Grider said.
Pennies have been produced for more than 200 years. In November, the U.S. Mint stopped producing the copper coin.
Marsh died in 2006, but his daughter kept his decades-long collection of pennies.
"It breaks my heart that they're not going to make any more. But I can tell you right now that he would be stocking up on every 2025 penny that he could find," Grider said.
An even rarer sight is a house built of pennies from the same time period. Grieder said it took her dad a year to build one penny house. Along with pennies, Grider has coins from 1961. Her father's hobby taught her the true meaning of life.
"Just be happy with anything that you can have that can make you happy, it can be as small as a penny," Grider said.
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