Facility Gets Creative Cleaning Coins

Workers at an aquarium in North Carolina closed to the public during the pandemic have gotten creative with their downtime.

Staff at North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores drained the facility’s 30-foot-tall indoor waterfall and collected the coins visitors had thrown into it while making wishes, reports NPR. According to a post on the aquarium’s Facebook page, workers cleaned and sorted about 100 gallons of coins that will be used toward the general care and maintenance of the aquarium and its animals.

The aquarium has been under mandated closure for nearly six months, which has left a lot of time for creative pandemic projects like this one. Staff are holding a Facebook contest asking visitors to guess how much money 100 gallons of coins add up to and will reveal the answer this week.