I don’t really drive, so I walk most places I go, and always watch the ground for obstacles (puddles, dog poo, loose paving stones, etc) so I spot a lot of dropped coins on the pavement. I think sometimes people are with are slightly embarrassed when I swerve to pick up a penny, but I’ve seen open envy when I collect a £1 coin (three of them this month, for the record)
So - if you see loose change lying on the ground, do you stop to pick it up? If not, why not?
ETA - Aaah, I messed up, there was meant to be a poll to go with this. Oh well, answers by text instead please!
Oh yes, having a kid with you is a good cover, if I think passers-by are giving me funny looks when I stoop for a 1p coin, I loudly say “See a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck!” to my toddler.
cough
It’s not *just *that I’m a penny-pinching Scot, y’know
I scan the floor in casinos. Otherwise, I don’t consciously look for dropped coins, but will pick up a quarter or even a nickel if I see it. Assuming it takes 10 seconds to pick up one coin and place it in your pocket, you could pick up 6 coins a minute which translates to 360 coins an hour. Retrieving pennies, .01x 360, yields $3.60 per hour, nickels $18 per hour, etc. Picking up pennies pays below the minimum wage, even if you’re quick and pick up a penny every 5 seconds.
I’m not sure that’s a fair comparison - if you’re doing it as well as your day job, say on your commute to work, then it’s a bonus on top of your wage, not a replacement.
I’ve put most of the copper coins (1 pence and 2 pence coins here in the UK) that I’ve picked up over the past two years, in my daughters money jar. I’m debating cashing it in to see how much I’ve “earned” on our daily walks!
I pick up pennies and quarters, but do not always pick up nickels or especially dimes. Pennies I pick up because no one else picks them up so they are essentially litter, it’s like recycling. Quarters I pick up because they are worth it.
Nickels I usually do not pick up because I figure someone else will pick them up. Dimes I almost never pick up because the ones that people leave on the ground are usually very dirty: other people have passed them up and/or overlooked them because they are tiny so they’ve had time to bury themselves in the dirt.
Of course. Money is money. I can’t imagine saying “free money isn’t worth the time it takes to pick it up” (assuming I have the ability to do so at the time, of course.)
Over the past few years my neighborhood has kind of gone to hell, but I haven’t moved because of intertia, more or less. One thing I have learned is that poor folks (at least the poor folks where I live) do not pick up coins. I’ve come upon entire handfulls of change laying on the pavement that looked like they had been there a while. Not sure what it is–probably the whole idea that chump change just isn’t worth it. Well, it is to me!
Generally not, although I’ll occasionally pick up quarters. My thought is that an extra handful of change isn’t going to make any difference to me, but to some passing toddler, it might be an amazing windfall. Well, maybe more-so in the past, when there was still a thing such as penny candy. But I think the point stands, the money will make someone else happier than it will me.
I interpreted it the other way - poor folks drop coins, rich folks don’t. I find coins in “socially deprived” areas, but not rich towns. I always thought it was something to do with the more well off tending to pay by card, and less likely to accidentally drop their change on the way out a shop, than those who are paying with cash.
When I get back coins as change, I try to get rid of them on subsequent purchases. Picking them up off the ground? Maybe a quarter, maybe not. Anything smaller, definitely not.
