Making Cents: How a Maine Man Paid $20,000 in Fines With Buckets of Coins (and Sparked an Epic Reddit Debate)
When it comes to getting even with the system, some folks go above and beyond. Like, say, using a kiddie pool’s worth of coins to settle a $20,000 government fine. That’s what happened in Palermo, Maine, where one contractor’s petty (and heavy) act of “malicious compliance” turned a zoning dispute into a viral spectacle—and a Reddit thread for the ages.
What happens when a man’s frustration with local government collides with the irresistible urge for revenge, all measured out in nickels and pennies? The answer: a classic showdown between bureaucracy, individual protest, and the poor souls stuck counting the change.
Dollars and Nonsense: The Fine Print on Legal Tender
The story, first reported by Bangor Daily News, reads like a sitcom script: After violating shoreland zoning rules, a contractor found himself on the hook for $20,000 in fines and fees. His response? Roll up (or, more accurately, bucket up) to the payment counter with over 60 buckets of coins. It took bank tellers days to count the haul. As u/Sabi-Star7, the original Reddit poster, gleefully put it: “Malicious compliance at its finest. This is petty revenge and he ‘claims’ he didn't even mean to. Like quit lying, you did it on purpose.”
But was this really a clever act of protest, or just a way to make life miserable for the wrong people? The Reddit commentariat dove right in.
Who’s the Real Victim? The Community Weighs In
While some lauded the contractor’s creativity (“Bravo,” cheered u/CaptainPonahawai), the consensus quickly shifted to sympathy for those caught in the crossfire: the town employees hauling buckets and the bank tellers left counting thousands of coins, one scoop at a time.
As u/Smart_Resist615 pointed out, “The only people who were inconvenienced were the town employee who had to drive them to the bank and the bank tellers who had to count them. None of whom are responsible for zoning laws. The contractor is the douche here.” This sentiment echoed throughout the thread, with u/Javka42 lamenting, “These kinds of stories always just make me feel sorry for the people who now have to count those coins and have a shit few days at work. They didn’t make the rules, they just get to suffer…”
Yet, there was nuance. Commenters like u/Triviajunkie95 highlighted that the contractor may have felt blindsided—having allegedly brought in the code enforcement officer multiple times before building, only to be fined after the fact. “He felt he should have been warned. It wasn’t a secret.” The line between malicious compliance and justified protest gets blurry when the rules themselves seem arbitrary or poorly communicated.
The Law, the Loopholes, and the Limits of Pettiness
Of course, any story involving large-scale coin payments quickly draws out the “well, actually” crowd. Enter u/meowisaymiaou and u/Retlifon, who pointed out that in Canada (and much of Europe), the law strictly limits how many coins you’re required to accept in a transaction. “Only the first fifty pennies from one entity to another per day is considered legal tender,” u/meowisaymiaou explained, while u/Retlifon detailed the exact limits by denomination.
That’s not the case in the U.S.—at least, not at the federal level. As u/ShadowDragon8685 argued, “Federal Law here is that you have to take legal tender, when provided, as discharge of a debt, or you waive that debt.” The intent? To prevent creditors from refusing payment and then piling on more penalties, a practice with disturbing historical roots. But as several commenters noted, it’s often up to local offices (and their patience) to decide how strictly to enforce these traditions.
Even among those who admired the pettiness, there was a sense that the tactic was, at best, a double-edged sword. As u/Rawrisaur18 recounted, a similar ploy at a local utility backfired: when a customer dropped off buckets of coins at closing time, the company only credited what they could count before 5 p.m.—and charged a penalty on the rest. Sometimes, the system bites back with equal pettiness.
Is It Justice, Protest, or Just a Headache?
So, is paying $20,000 in coins a bold act of protest, or just making life harder for everyone except the people who set the rules? The Reddit hive mind, as usual, couldn’t settle the score. Some called out the “douchebaggery” of inconveniencing low-level workers, while others admired the creativity and pointed out the historical importance of legal tender laws (and, as u/Javasteam noted, the irony that pennies cost more to make than they’re worth).
And, inevitably, the thread spiraled into “petty payment Olympics”: from origami pigs made of dollar bills in a donut box to fantasies of paying a second fine (for wasting government time) in even more pennies. The lesson? In the world of malicious compliance, escalation is always on the table—and so is a healthy dose of schadenfreude.
Conclusion: Counting More Than Coins
This story is a reminder that every act of protest—or pettiness—has unintended consequences. Sometimes, the only people who pay the price are the ones with the least power. And sometimes, the rules themselves are so convoluted that the line between right and wrong, compliance and defiance, is as murky as a jar of mixed change.
What do you think: Is this epic coin payment a justifiable protest, or just an inconvenience for innocent bystanders? Have you ever witnessed (or pulled off) an act of malicious compliance? Drop your stories and takes below—the pettier, the better!
Original Reddit Post: Sweet, petty malicious compliance paying $20k in fines with mainly coins.