Philly quarters heat up ‘Bama

Shipment of Kansas state quarters catches fire. About $800,000 worth of quarters spill out on the highway.

Around $800,000 of quarters spilled on an Alabama highway when the truck carrying them from the Philadelphia Mint caught fire Sept. 13.

The bags contained 39,000 pounds of the new Kansas quarters.

A grease fire igniting near a rear tire of the armored vehicle was blamed for the mishap, which occured about 2:30 a.m. on Highway 59 near Hammond-ville. Although the quarters were stored on metal pallets, the bags caught fire and spilled out onto the highway.

The coins were picked up in a front-end loader and deposited in buckets.
The accident closed a portion of the highway for 12 hours.

NMNAuthor