When Melvin Doyle told his priest that he’d like to donate his coin collection to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in New Hope\/Plymouth, Minn., the Rev. Bob Hazel imagined a few glass cases and cardboard binders. <\/p>\n
Then Doyle, 89, had Hazel over to check out his collection and arrange to have it moved. <\/p>\n
“Took three pickup trucks and 12 men,” Doyle said proudly. “I’m not a numismatist. I’m a hoarder.” <\/p>\n
Many people do it: empty their pockets at day’s end and toss the loose change into a jar or a cigar box. “College for the kids,” they think. Trouble is, most people raid the coin stash every week or so for laundry money or bus fare. <\/p>\n
Not Mel Doyle. He pretty much let his coins be. They filled and then spilled from jugs, buckets, jars and bags that accumulated in his Plymouth basement and made his wife nervous. <\/p>\n
“If you die before me, I’m putting all those coins in your casket with you,” Marge told him more than once. “I don’t want somebody breaking in here for them.” <\/p>\n