Patent ID: 8458037

Claim:
A method comprising: dividing, by a processor, a plurality of coin types of coins with which a user is permitted to pay for a transaction into a first group and a second group, the coin types of the second group being of lower value than the coin types of the first group; calculating, by the processor, a difference in which a total amount of the transaction is a minuend; where the difference is positive and can only be exactly paid for by the user using just the coins of the coin types of the second group and not using any of the coins of the coin types of the first group, and where a community escrow electronically maintained by a computing device has a current balance greater than the difference, in response to the user indicating the user wishes to have the difference paid for from the community escrow, in lieu of the user having to pay the difference, electronically crediting the transaction from the community escrow by an amount equal to the difference, by the computing device; and, electronically debiting the difference from the community escrow, by the computing device, wherein the community escrow is an electronically maintained tally of money functioning as a virtual penny tray.