# Do you pick up dropped coins? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 21, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903 "2013-01-21T14:42:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/81 "2013-02-23T05:20:53Z")
I totally pick up coins of any denomination. But I don’t find them often. How do you guys find money regularly? Maybe most people here pick up money as well. > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > In Australia there are no coins smaller than a 5 cent piece. My ex-wife anf I, when we had young kids, started picking them up as they are “good luck.” Many years later I have continued the habit, telling myself I’m in for a lucky day (without actually believing it) every time I pick one up. > > It is obviously the level at which people can’t be bothered to pick up a coin they drop because nearly every coin I see laying around is a 5. I probably find one or two a year but can’t recall when I last saw a larger denomination coin laying around. I saw a newspaper article on how some Australians don’t even bother to pick up 5c coins when vacuuming, they just treat them as trash. Do you guys use your coins? I pride myself on keeping my number of coins at a constant level. I know some people can’t do that, they end up with buckets of change. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/82 "2013-02-23T06:53:33Z")
Anything but a penny. I’ve got two change jars - one for quarters and one for everything else. Every couple of yearsiI cash out and treat myself to something. This summer I’m going on a cruise and should end up with about two hundred in booze/gambling money. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/83 "2013-02-23T13:28:34Z")
I only pick up 1921 Peace Silver Dollars. I sniff disdainfully at all other dropped coinage. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/84 "2013-02-28T00:01:08Z")
A quarter–sure, and that’s about the biggest we’ll ever see in the U.S. About all I can use a single quarter for is the tip jar at Starbucks, but that’s something. If I had the prospect of picking up halves, loonies, toonies, pounds, or Euros I’d be paying a lot more attention, believe me. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/85 "2013-02-28T00:05:41Z")
> [@Timetrvlr](#): > > Sure, I watch where I walk and often pick up coins and sometimes a loose bill. Bills are usually found outside the liquor store in the parking lot. I always check ATM machines as I walk by. Sometimes find $20 bills that someone has left behind. Can’t imagine why anyone is so negligent and absent-minded as to take only part of their cash. Sometime around 1980, I found a $20 bill from the 1950s. It was a Federal Reserve Note but in those days they still had the “Will pay to the bearer” clause under the portrait. Wish I’d hung onto that… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/86 "2013-02-28T00:20:34Z")
£1.20 today. Nice. Just before Christmas, I was waiting at the train station and I saw three £10 notes lying on the track. I left them there. I’m not sure I’d have climbed down there even if it had been a gold ingot. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/87 "2013-02-28T01:04:46Z")
I only pick up coins I’ve dropped. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/88 "2013-03-01T03:10:05Z")
I’m another guy who will pick up a nickel or better. I hardly have to slow down to grab one. Why not? I just dump it in the bowl with the rest of the pocket change and cash it in every so often. And I have a cheap streak. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/89 "2013-03-01T08:49:30Z")
I would pick up a quarter but nothing less than that. I place my loose change on the dresser and when I accumulate too large a pile, I’ve started throwing the pennies in the trash. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/90 "2013-03-01T19:42:05Z")
I pick up objects at the bottom of the local pool. The main culprits are bobby pins which quickly rust and leave a stain. Today it was a penny and a bobby pin, both at least 8’ down. Not the first time I’ve picked up coins. Who brings coins into a pool? Especially a penny? Not even good for the vending machines. Threw them out. Not worth carrying the cent with me to the locker room. Outside the pool, I pick up my own dropped coins since I’m not a litter bug. Generally don’t pay attention/care about someone else’s. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/91 "2013-03-01T19:51:00Z")
I pick up everything that even comes close to resembling a coin or was a coin at one time (you can take them to the bank and exchange them for good ones). ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/92 "2013-03-02T13:59:18Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > 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! Yes I pick up any coin, and some times I have found up to $5.00 in a year. It all adds up. Little things make a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/93 "2013-03-02T14:07:18Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > I totally pick up coins of any denomination. But I don’t find them often. How do you guys find money regularly? Maybe most people here pick up money as well. > > I saw a newspaper article on how some Australians don’t even bother to pick up 5c coins when vacuuming, they just treat them as trash. > > Do you guys use your coins? I pride myself on keeping my number of coins at a constant level. I know some people can’t do that, they end up with buckets of change. Sorry Annie, I missed your question. I guess there are some people who wouldn’t bother to pick up 5 cent pieces. In most households though I think they would get saved and put into the coin counter at the bank eventually. Although in the 1970’s I had a friend who had so much disdain for 5 cent pieces he would hurl them into the ocean (we lived on an island). As an aside, I was talking to the lady at the antiques shop today and she was telling of doing a deceased estate valuation. They thought the curtains looked a bit distorted and had a good look. The elderly deceased owner had pinned bank notes inside the lining of the curtains many years before and had forgotten about them. Nice windfall for the daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/94 "2013-03-02T15:09:37Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > Yes I pick up any coin, and some times I have found up to $5.00 in a year. It all adds up. Little things make a difference. My found money amounts to enough for me to treat as pocket money - I wait until there’s ten or twenty pounds worth (every few months on average), then I use it to buy something I want with complete impunity to nagging about having wasted money. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/95 "2013-03-02T17:55:05Z")
I can’t stand change in my pockets. If anything, I’m the guy dropping them. I’ll pick up cash though. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/96 "2013-03-02T19:25:17Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > “to some passing toddler, it might be an amazing windfall.” > > To some passing toddler it might be an agaonizing death from choking so just pick up the penny and stop thinking you’re a swell guy. Ha! I’ll use that excuse next time someone gives me a funny look 🙂 > [@Terra1041](#): > > Every little bit helps in this economy. I like to think of it as helping the economy by returning lost money into circulation 😉 > [@AaronX](#): > > I totally pick up coins of any denomination. But I don’t find them often. How do you guys find money regularly? Maybe most people here pick up money as well. > > Do you guys use your coins? I pride myself on keeping my number of coins at a constant level. I know some people can’t do that, they end up with buckets of change. I pick up coins most days - it’s more noteworthy when I don’t get at least a penny. I generally use them nowadays, as I’ve filled my little girls [terramundi](http://www.terramundi.co.uk/mall/productpage.cfm/Terramundi2/_S49/261586/S49)money jar now (originally they all went in there). I must start a thread on the best way to open a terramundi and cash it in, sometime! 🙂 > [@Mangetout](#): > > Just before Christmas, I was waiting at the train station and I saw three £10 notes lying on the track. I left them there. I’m not sure I’d have climbed down there even if it had been a gold ingot. Length of fishing line with chewing gum on the end! > [@ftg](#): > > Who brings coins into a pool? Especially a penny? I used to as a kid - to dive for them… > [@Kimballkid](#): > > I pick up everything that even comes close to resembling a coin or was a coin at one time (you can take them to the bank and exchange them for good ones). I’ve got some rusted so far beyond recognition, I’d bet even the bank would decline them! > [@cmyk](#): > > I can’t stand change in my pockets. If anything, I’m the guy dropping them. Where do you live, so I can follow you? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/97 "2013-03-02T23:14:28Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > Length of fishing line with chewing gum on the end! I thought about that (along with other possibilities), but this was not at my home station, so I’d have had to go home and come back with any equipment. In any case, I imagine even reaching down to the track with a cane could be regarded as trespassing on the track (max fine £1,000) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/98 "2013-03-03T00:07:07Z")
I just counted up my found money jar this afternoon - there was about £25 in there. I bagged it up for banking and will use it to by myself a half-decent webcam for stopmotion/timelapse work. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/99 "2013-03-03T03:14:37Z")
As I posted earlier, I pick up every coin for the exercise. Got fooled twice, though. In a small town in WA State I saw a 50 cent piece. Bent down to grab it and it was glued down. I guess they did it to pick out the tourists. When I go back (my daughter lives there) I am bringing my hammer and chisel. Once in Mexico I found the same, a glued down 5 pesos. I always figure there is a camera, so I smile. Once I found 2-40 dollar Jamaica coins. Was planning a vacation there when I discovered they were worth about a nickel at the time. I left them on an ATM machine, for someones vacation there. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903/100 "2013-03-03T05:14:46Z")
No I don’t because I figure somebody else would derive more pleasure or utility from such a coin than I would. So, in a way, it’s almost like I’m making a random donation to some stranger. Now… a $5 dollar bill or higher, just laying on the ground? I might not feel so charitable that day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pick-up-dropped-coins/647903.md?page=6)