--- title: 40,000 Pounds of Pennies Spilled Onto I-95 After a Truck Crashed description: A truck bound for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia overturned last night, spilling some 40,000 pounds of pennies onto I-95 and bringing traffic to a standstill. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-09-08T19:24:24.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T03:37:53.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Coins - Currency - pubdesk - Traffic word_count: 198 canonical: https://money.com/pennies-spill-i-95-traffic/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Loose stacks of US pennies, full frame](https://img.money.com/2016/09/penniescrash-em-187591463.jpg) A tractor-trailer loaded with pennies bound for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia overturned Thursday at about 2 a.m., spilling some 40,000 pounds of coins onto I-95 and bringing traffic to a standstill. The truck slammed into a plastic barrier, overturned and caught fire near New Castle, Del., a local [ABC station](http://6abc.com/1502898/) reported. Inside the truck, tens of thousands of pennies—blank, so not valuable as currency—then flooded onto the highway. Many of the coins were burned black due to the fire. Northbound traffic on I-95 was completely shut down for hours. At least one lane was reopened on Thursday morning, though cars remained backed up for miles. [Fox 29](http://www.fox29.com/news/203434619-story) estimates that a total of 40,000 pounds of pennies wound up covering the road. Each penny [weighs 0.088 ounces](https://www.reference.com/hobbies-games/much-one-penny-weigh-1e01a3e9422b4705). So, if we're doing the math correctly, 40,000 pounds worth would equate to something north of 7 million pennies. That's a lot of pennies. ***Read Next:* [Why $100 Bills and €500 Notes May Soon Be Killed Off](https://money.com/kill-100-dollar-bill-500-euro-phase-out/)** And because of all the traffic this incident has caused, we're guessing there might be quite a few more drivers who now agree with the argument that we should [get rid of pennies](https://money.com/get-rid-of-penny-jacob-lew/) entirely. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/pennies-spill-i-95-traffic/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Travel", "item": "https://money.com/travel/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "40,000 Pounds of Pennies Spilled Onto I-95 After a Truck Crashed" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/pennies-spill-i-95-traffic/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/pennies-spill-i-95-traffic/", "name": "40,000 Pounds of Pennies Spilled Onto I-95 After a Truck Crashed", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-09-08T19:24:24.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/pennies-spill-i-95-traffic/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/pennies-spill-i-95-traffic/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T03:37:53.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "40,000 Pounds of Pennies Spilled Onto I-95 After a Truck Crashed", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/09/penniescrash-em-187591463.jpg", "width": 5019, "height": 3346, "caption": "Loose stacks of US pennies, full frame" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-09-08T19:24:24.000Z", "description": "A truck bound for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia overturned last night, spilling some 40,000 pounds of pennies onto I-95 and bringing traffic to a standstill.", "abstract": "A truck bound for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia overturned last night, spilling some 40,000 pounds of pennies onto I-95 and bringing traffic to a standstill.", "@id": "https://money.com/pennies-spill-i-95-traffic/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T03:37:53.000Z", "wordCount": 198, "keywords": [ "Coins", "Currency", "pubdesk", "Traffic" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Travel", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel" ] } ] } ] } ```