Money is money — but it’s a whole lot easier to receive a bunch of it with a check or even cash, than entirely in loose change. That’s how one California man said an insurance company paid him $21,000 in a legal settlement, dropping off more than 16 five-gallon buckets filled with coins.

The 73-year-old man filed a lawsuit in 2012 against an employee of the insurance company, claiming he’d been physically assaulted, reports NBC Los Angeles.

After the two parties reached a settlement, the insurance company paid up: The man’s attorney says eight employees of the insurance company showed up to his office in a van bearing five-gallon containers full of coins, and left them in the waiting room.

“There’s over 16 buckets of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies. It’s going to take us at least, conservatively, one week to count that whole amount of money,” the attorney told CBS Los Angeles, with his client — who recently had a hernia operation and can’t lift much — adding, “It’s too heavy.”

“I am disappointed by the way [the insurance company] treats their customers and the elderly,” he said in a statement. “We might be poor, but we are people too.”

Insurance Company Settles Claim In $21K Of Loose Coins [CBS Los Angeles]
Insurance Company Delivers Settlement in Buckets of Loose Change [NBC Los Angeles]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.