Thousands of R$ 1 coins stored in plastic bags and a 20-liter water jug covered the remaining balance on a R$ 110,000 pickup truck in the interior of Ceará. A local tire repairman used his multi-year coin savings alongside a trade-in vehicle to purchase a 2009 Toyota Hilux SRV at a car dealership in the municipality of Quixeramobim on Saturday (17).
Dealership owner and businessman Rafael Fernandes, 28, who has worked in automotive sales for 10 years, said he had never seen a cash payment of that volume during his career. The buyer first mentioned the coins during the price negotiation, prompting initial skepticism from the seller before the containers were unloaded at the shop. “At the time of the negotiation he mentioned [the coins] and I could not believe it, because I had never seen that in my life. That was when he arrived with some bags and a large water jug full of coins,” Rafael Fernandes said.
Dealership staff spent 8 hours sorting the R$ 1 coins before turning to a bank
Sorting the metal currency required an immediate group effort inside the Quixeramobim dealership as soon as the sale was agreed upon on October 17, 2026. Rafael Fernandes and four dealership employees worked together to separate and tally the R$ 1 units on the floor, yet the team could not finish counting the entire sum at the store. Faced with the practical difficulty of verifying the exact amount delivered for the pickup truck on-site, the businessman sought outside alternatives to complete the financial operation safely.
The final tally was only completed on Monday (19), two days after the customer drove away with the Toyota Hilux. “We spent around eight hours counting the coins. Part of the coins, I sold to a collector, and the other part I deposited in the bank,” said the businessman and car dealer, who transported the remaining load to a local bank branch to finish the verification and deposit the funds.
Videos recorded by the businessman showing the bags of coins and the counting process reached more than 1 million views after being posted on the dealership’s social media profiles. In one of the recordings, the merchant recalls his initial reaction to the customer’s offer while displaying the containers. “A man said he was going to pay me for the whole car in coins. Then I thought it was a joke,” Rafael Fernandes declared in the footage.
Why the buyer hoarded metal currency and why the Quixeramobim seller accepted
According to the dealership owner, the tire repairman spent several years setting aside R$ 1 coins with the specific goal of buying a vehicle outright while testing how much physical money he could accumulate on his own. Personal financial beliefs also guided the worker’s decision to keep his savings in metal rather than in a financial institution. “He did not want to pay tax, and he believed it was safer to save in coins. He also wanted to know how much he could save up,” Rafael Fernandes explained.
Despite the logistical burden of handling thousands of coins at the Quixeramobim store, the merchant accepted the payment method without hesitation. Rafael Fernandes pointed to his own family background and work ethic to explain why he refused to turn away the buyer. “I came from nothing, I started from zero. My mother has been a traveling vendor for 20 years, my father a taxi driver, and I got here with a lot of boldness. I cannot lose a sale for anything; when I saw the coins, there was no reason not to accept them,” the owner stated.
Market valuation and transaction figures for the 2009 Toyota Hilux SRV
The pickup truck acquired by the tire repairman in Ceará was negotiated above the standard market average established by Brazilian automotive pricing benchmarks. Key figures and confirmed specifications of the Quixeramobim transaction include:
- Negotiated vehicle: 2009 Toyota Hilux pickup truck, SRV trim.
- Total sale price at the dealership: R$ 110,000.
- Tabela Fipe valuation (Brazil’s official benchmark for average used vehicle prices): estimated range between R$ 70,000 and R$ 100,000 for this specific model year and version.
- Payment structure: trade-in of the buyer’s previous automobile as a down payment, combined with thousands of R$ 1 coins.
- Currency transport: plastic bags and a 20-liter water jug.
Undisclosed financial details and security measures for the buyer
To protect the customer’s privacy and ensure his personal safety in the region, businessman Rafael Fernandes withheld the buyer’s name and declined to disclose the exact amount in Brazilian reais paid strictly in R$ 1 coins. The dealership also kept confidential the make, model, and trade-in valuation of the older vehicle handed over by the tire repairman as the initial part of the down payment.
