My college roommate and her parents found $16,000 in cash sewn into the couch cushions after her aunt died. They had no idea it was there, and the couch was an hour away from going out to door to goodwill.
Twenty-Five Cents.
In 1988 I was on a school hike waaaay out in the mountains and was looking around a patch of gravel and rocks near a camp-site and found a 1918 penny.
Depending on it’s condition its worth anything from $6 to $425.
Didn’t bother looking for the owner 
I found about $145 on the sidewalk at LAX by the cart rental thing. Two or three little piles of bills. Middle of the night, nobody around. Score!
Here is a strange one: I’ve been skiing over 40 years, and can’t recall ever finding cash. I’ve picked up somebodys credit card once, iPhones, goggles and all sorts of other stuff, but don’t recall any greenery. Anyway, just last season, in fresh snow, I spot some bills from the chair. Now, there were* lots of people who should have* gotten to them first (long chair ride), but nobody seemed to have spied them. I get there and find a $20 and a $10. The *very next day *of skiing, at a totally different part of the mountain, I stop and look down and spot a $20!
That was weird.
Over $150 cash – it was in an otherwise nondescript wallet with little to no identifying information.
I turned it in to the visitor center desk at the National Park I was at, though I’m still a bit suspicious that the clerk just pocketed it.
The second biggest was a $50, I actually saw it fall out of the guy’s wallet when he was getting out some trivial amount of money for a vending machine and picked it up as he was walking towards the machine and gave it back to him. He insisted I keep it for being kind enough to return it.
Student Driver, your second story (of the three) is infuriating. As soon as that jerk said anything other to you than “thank you!”, you must have been tempted to punch him square in the face.
(Better that you didn’t, of course. No telling what someone as crude as that putz would be capable of.)
Not much money, here.
But I did find a 5 pound sledgehammer, once.
I’ve found $20 notes on a few occasions, and a lot of $5 notes, probably at least $50 worth of them over the years. I can’t recall ever finding a $10 note, oddly enough.
The longer version of the story is -
[long version]
It was 38 degrees celcius, 97 percent humidity, and a strong wind from the west. I was hiding in an island of shade, melting, and saw the note blowing along the middle of the road from 100 metres away. At the speed it was moving, I figured there would be jogging, probably running, involved to catch it. I run like a drunk 8 year old girl, (as in I tend to start skipping, waving my hands in the air, and making squealing noises), so try to avoid doing that in public. Add the fact that I was half cooked from the heat, and I concluded that I really didn’t need that $20.
[/long version]
I once found $400 on the street, in a change purse, late at night.
I don’t know the exact amount since I didn’t count it, but it was the product of selling the year’s crop for a neighbor who was a full-time farmer. That was the money his family were going to live on for a year. He gave me 400 pesetas - at the time, my weekly was 50! I was rich!
$100 in twenties. Blowing across a parking lot, they smacked into my legs. I kicked the first away, thinking it was just trash. The next one I looked and and it was a twenty. I looked up and saw more coming. No one around for a mile, so I kept them and told my dad. I was about 13, so it was a huge windfall.
Not money, but we spend a month or so in Ponte Vedra every summer. We get a membership to the club so we can use the pool and facilities while there. I always have a metal detector when I go to the beach, because hey, you never know. The beach in front of the PVIC is littered with jewelry. Expensive jewelry. I’ve turned in some big stuff - 2, 3, 4 carat diamonds, an emerald brooch. Those were unique pieces, and were eventually returned to their owners, but the smaller, non-descript stuff? Off to the pawn shop or my trinket shelf. If there are initials or a name, I play detective for a while and try to return things. Class rings are pretty easy, but smaller rings or earrings, not so much. I may find a thousand bucks worth of stuff in a month’s time. Just a couple hours here and there while I watch the dolphins play.
$200.00 in a supermarket parking lot.
Five $20 bills folded together in the middle of the car park one morning a few years ago when arriving at work. I saw a co-worker entering the building when I was getting out of my car, and a direct path from her car to the door would have gone very close to where I found the money, so I figured it was hers. It was. (Or at least she said it was…)
Second largest was four twenties, back when I was just out of high school.
Found $140 and a pistol, which I sold for $200 up in the closet of my new house.
Back in my single days, I moved into a furnished apartment. Apparently, the person who had it before me was somewhat of a paranoid packrat with a bad memory. I happened to pull the drawer out of the end table and found an envelope with $100 in it taped to the back. I then pulled out every drawer in the kitchen. By the time I was finished, I was up 400 clams.
I was working as a sales associate for a local software/electronic game store in a mall. There were two guys that were purchasing something and, once they were done, started to leave. I walked up to the counter where they were just a moment ago and was talking to the other sales associate when I noticed a bank envelope that was left on the counter. I briefly opened it and found there was some cash in it. The guys who just made their purchase were still standing outside the store, so I asked them if that envelope belonged to either of them. The one guy took the envelope, pulled out a $10 and handed it to me. I tried to refuse, but he explained that the envelope had over $800 in it. I humbly accepted the reward.
The best I’ve found was a $20 bill on the sidewalk. Other than that one occasion, only $5 bills or less.
I believe this thread has magical properties. Just this morning I found a pair of sackies under my desk at work!
That’s almost a free subway ride.
I once found $200,000 and a parachute while hiking in southwest Washington…
Seriously though:
>$60 in a parking lot. My friend was driving and we went to a late night diner. I opened my door and the cash was right outside my door. Didn’t even have to get out. No one was around, so we just left with it.
>$150 in a jacket outside a concert. There was no ID and I was young and greedy. There was a card with the AA pledge on it, which made it kind of sad, not to mention we probably went and got drunk with the money.
>Walked into a bar in New Orleans for my first drink of my vacation and found $20 on the floor (to be fair, I probably drop a lot more than that when I’m in NOLA).
>My ex and I were walking out of a bar in Ann Arbor. I see a flash of green flutter by and my ex dives at it with another guy right behind her going for it to. Turns out it was a $20 and she beat the guy by inches. What was funny was a bit earlier she blew through a red light with a cop sitting on the other side of the street watching the whole thing. She just waits for him to turn around in traffic and write her a ticket, but he was happy she pulled over first, so she let her off…talk about your lucky day.