# Americans - How much change is on you right now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 28, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394 "2010-09-28T20:50:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/1 "2010-09-28T20:50:58Z")
Poll coming shortly. Want to examine the distribution of low change amounts. Count whatever ‘change is on you’ would usually mean to you. Please let’s keep this limited to American money - places where currency values are different could skew the distribution. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/2 "2010-09-28T20:53:54Z")
Thirty-two cents. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/3 "2010-09-28T20:54:58Z")
twelve cents. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/4 "2010-09-28T20:55:21Z")
Twenty seven cents. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/5 "2010-09-28T21:02:16Z")
My prediction: this is going to be an extremely bi-modal distribution, with more than 50% going for either 0 cents or more than a dollar. ---
**Author:** ![FrancisCastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b4bc9f/32.png) [@FrancisCastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrancisCastle)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/6 "2010-09-28T21:06:48Z")
$1.79 ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/7 "2010-09-28T21:07:12Z")
$1.21. I should buy a slushie on the way home. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/8 "2010-09-28T21:08:21Z")
A buck ninety-eight in change for me. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/9 "2010-09-28T21:09:27Z")
18 cents. I throw my spare change into a big jar at the end of the day. Last week I ran it through a coin sorter. Almost $250. It was a pretty heavy jar, been tossing coins into it for a year or two. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/10 "2010-09-28T21:10:25Z")
$1.47. That homeless beggar would not have gotten my money. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/11 "2010-09-28T21:10:37Z")
1. I’ve been completely and utterly broke for the last 6 days. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/12 "2010-09-28T21:40:27Z")
On me: zilch. (_Checks backpack that I bring to work_ — nothing there either. All I have is paper money at the moment.) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/13 "2010-09-28T21:42:16Z")
Zero. I tend not to carry change; the vast majority of the time I’m paying cash for something, it’s while I’m in my car, and the change stays in the car. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/14 "2010-09-28T21:48:36Z")
There’s some change on my desk at work. There’s some change in the car. Nowhere else. Sometime’s there’s change in my pocket just after a purchase, but I unload at or before the end of the day. Sometimes it sits on my desk at home for a bit, but it usually sorts into my desk at work (work - where the vending machine lives), the car, or donated to my son who rolls coins. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/15 "2010-09-28T21:53:53Z")
But then, I’m currently pantsless. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/16 "2010-09-28T22:21:10Z")
I try to keep 9¢, four pennies and a nickel That way I have the needed combos so I don’t have to deal with pennies ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/17 "2010-09-28T22:57:18Z")
0; but I keep change in my car, about $5.00, I might grab some when I go into a store but always put it back. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/18 "2010-09-28T23:02:31Z")
Nothing directly on me at this exact moment. I pick up pennies, so I usually have at least a few cents; today is an unusually penny-free day. On the other hand, I have a couple of bucks in the cushions of my couch, about $20 in quarters sitting in my “laundry money bowl” by the front door, about $50 of unrolled change in a jar right next to it, $10 or so in my car for drive throughs and toll roads, and several hundred dollars in rolled change sitting in a chest in my library. I could probably scrounge another $20 or so by going through laundry baskets, drawers, clothes hamper, and anywhere else that change tends to fall… so even though I have no change directly on me, I have quite a bit within a few dozen feet. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/19 "2010-09-28T23:49:32Z")
I only empty my purse when it gets too heavy for me. I dump the change at the bottom. If the beggar had asked me I wouldn’t have answered because counting the change in my purse entails my dumping it out, opening all the pockets, and then counting it. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394/20 "2010-09-28T23:58:02Z")
Ten cents. I’ve been particularly successful at spending my change as I receive it lately, which is my normal goal. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-how-much-change-is-on-you-right-now/555394.md?page=2)