A Montana woman found a uniquely heartfelt way to leave her beloved grandson something to remember her by before she died.
Not many Americans expect to receive much in the way of a traditional inheritance. According to the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, just over one in five U.S. households had received an inheritance at some point in their lives.
Vinny didn’t receive an inheritance from his late grandmother in the traditional sense of the word, but it still held a powerful personal significance for the boy who grew up as one of his grandma’s favorites.
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“We were very close,” Vinny told Newsweek. “I was the oldest grandkid, so I was the first to get all of her love and attention.”
The bowl of quarters Vinny’s grandma gave him. It was a gift of some significance.
Reddit/u/Raslatt
Just before her death in 2022, he paid her a visit to say goodbye and let her know how much she meant to him. It was then that his grandma gave him the most unexpected of parting gifts: a vase containing 7,679 quarters.
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To some, that kind of inheritance might have come as a shock but Vinny knew this was so much more than just a vase of coins.
“Grandma was a career waitress in Montana,” he said. “She grew up on a farm near the border of Montana and Canada. She went to beauty school after high school graduation and worked as a beautician for a little while but then became a waitress for most of her life.”
Vinny remembers how “everyone loved” his grandma at the restaurant where she worked and how she would often be requested by the regular customers.
He also remembers the quarters she gave him whenever they went to visit her. “My mom and I would visit grandma at work during her shift breaks. Grandma would always give me a couple of quarters to use in the restaurant’s candy machine,” Vinny recalled.
“I became accustomed to grandma giving me quarters for the candy—so I would naturally tug on her waitress uniform when I first saw her and say, ‘quarters grandma, quarters.'” There was something else of significance about the gift: the vase. “I gave her the vase as a Christmas present when I was about 12 years old,” Vinny said.
What he didn’t know at the time was that from that day onwards, his grandmother started putting every quarter she ever received from her tips as a waitress in that vase. “Grandma was not an investor—but she was a good saver,” he said. “I was in shock when I found out she had saved all of the quarters for me.”
It totaled out at $1,919. “I double checked the vase for silver quarters. There were none. Grandma was diligent about removing the silver quarters.”
Vinny with his grandmother’s quarters. All of the coins have been bagged up now
Reddit/u/Raslatt
Vinny has since taken the quarters to Wells Fargo with the funds invested into a brokerage account. He has a few tiny regrets about that. “I do wish I had checked for misprints,” he said after posting a picture of the vase of coins to Reddit, where many users were quick to urge him to look out for errors that could make some of the quarters especially valuable.
He also wonders whether he did the right thing in cashing in. “In hindsight, I wish I had kept the vase of quarters to pass down,” he said.
More than anything though, he’s just appreciative of the time he got to have with his grandmother and the special gift she saved for him. “I am very lucky to have had her as my grandma,” he concluded.
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