Picture cruising down a rural Texas highway at sunrise, and suddenly you’re confronted by millions of dimes littering the highway like confetti. This is what occurred on April 29, 2025, when an 18-wheeler carrying 8 million freshly printed dimes valued at $800,000 overturned along U.S. Highway 287 alongside Alvord High School in Wise County, Texas. The peculiar crash transformed a sleepy morning commute into an absurd scene of vacuum trucks, shovels, and men scooping coins out of mud, thrilling residents and inspiring a series of tongue-in-cheek Facebook and Twitter entries.
At around 5:30 a.m., the truck, operated by Western Distributing Transportation Corp.’s U.S. Armored Company division, veered off the roadway. The driver suddenly overcorrected, and the truck flipped and dumped its valuable load onto the southbound flow of traffic and onto nearby grass and ditches. Both the driver and an armed guard passenger were hospitalized with minor injuries but were discharged later that day. The Texas Department of Public Safety reported no other vehicles were involved, but the crash closed the highway for nearly 14 hours, snarling traffic north of Fort Worth.
The truck was transporting loose dimes—8 million of them—for the U.S. Mint, a detail that baffled officials and onlookers alike. Typically, coins are shipped in rolls, but these were free to scatter, creating a logistical nightmare.
“I almost came out here with a bucket to fill it up with dimes,”
Sebastian Vasquez, a Wise County resident, told WFAA with a laugh. Authorities, however, were quick to warn that taking any coins would be theft, citing a recent Illinois incident where bystanders snatched cash from a spilled truck.
Recovering 8 million dimes from a highway and its muddy surroundings was no small feat. Crews from the Texas Department of Transportation, Alvord Fire Department, and the armored company descended on the scene, armed with an arsenal of unconventional tools. Heavy-duty vacuum trucks, normally used for sewer cleanups, roared to life, sucking up coins from the pavement and ditches. Street sweepers whirred along the road, while workers shoveled piles of dirt and dimes or picked coins out of grass by hand. Rainfall throughout the day only added to the challenge, potentially washing coins deeper into brush or mud.
“It was the funniest part,”
Alvord Mayor Caleb Caviness told The New York Times, chuckling about the sewage vacuums repurposed for coin collection. The southbound lanes remained closed until 7:30 p.m., as crews worked tirelessly to clear the roadway. Aerial footage from news helicopters captured the surreal sight, with workers resembling treasure hunters sifting through a giant piggy bank split open.
The incident sparked a mix of disbelief and humor among residents and across social media. On X, users like@Dexertomarveled at the
“shoveling and hand-picking”
summing up the absurdity. Local news outlets, including WFAA and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, ran headlines about the “8 million dime spill,” with some comparing it to a scene from a comedy movie.
Yet, amid the laughter, questions lingered. Why were the dimes transported loose rather than in rolls? Where was the truck headed? And, crucially, were all 8 million coins recovered? Neither the U.S. Mint nor the Treasury provided answers, leaving reporters and residents speculating. The armored company and local authorities remained tight-lipped about the truck’s origin and destination, though it’s likely the dimes were en route from a mint to a Federal Reserve Bank.
It wasn’t the first instance when a spill of cash made headlines. The week prior to this, an Illinois tractor-trailer spilled $300,000 and set off theft alerts when passersbys helped themselves. In Alvord, there was no such panic, at least partly because of the practical unfeasibility of carrying millions of dimes around. Nonetheless, the incident highlighted the complexity of hauling valuable freight and the pandemonium that breaks out when things do break down.
