UNCC student pays parking fine with pennies

Buckets of pennies used in paying the fine

26-year-old Stephen Coyle, a senior at the University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC), was given a $110 parking ticket at the university. He however decided to pay the fine in pennies after discovering that 80% of the UNCC parking tickets fund local public schools, as against the university. According to him, it shouldn’t be the responsibility of college students to fund public schools but that of taxpayers. The money collected from parking fines should instead be used to improve campus life.

Five $25 boxes containing 2,500 pennies each

"Every year, funding runs out before the end of the year, so a lot of student organizations aren't able to do the things they do need to do unless they fund them themselves," he said.
In order to make his voice heard, Coyle decided to pay his $110 fine completely in pennies. He reportedly went to three different banks to get five $25 boxes containing 2,500 pennies each (a total of 11,000 pennies), which he delivered in three separate buckets. He then proceeded to sit and watch while two workers counted each individual penny, taking them three hours and forty minutes!