Do you pick up change found on the sidewalk?

[yoda313]

So if you see a penny on the sidewalk do you pick it up? I generally don't. Though I may depending on my mood.

[FulciLives]

I thought only homeless people and Jews did this ???

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning. Please avoid racist comments or stereotypes in the future.
/ Moderator Cobra

[dun4cheap]

Only if its heads up. Tails down is bad luck

[GKar]

I could care less about the face value, I check if it is a rare date or mint mark or if it has a mint error...

(must be the Jew in me )

[gadgetguy]

Find a penney,
pick it up,
and all the day,
you'll have good luck.

(The things we learn from our mothers...)

[edDV]

All pennies go to the new camcorder fund. Plus the new core2 fund. Show me the pennies!

[NiteLite]

Usually...but if around a nasty place, no, not for a penny.
I'm still amazed about the "urban myth" of tails down money cant be picked up.
Find a $20 bill and see if anyone cares which way it's turned.
NL

[ZAPPER]

It depends. Sometimes I will pick it up and pocket it, sometimes pick it up and place it elsewhere, kind of like a time capsule or to make future finders wonder how it got there or just put it in plain site like on top of a mail box or newspaper box.

Sometimes if I am with somebody and I point it out and they pick it up first, like it was on their side of the walk or closer to them I make a "big fuss" over them picking up the money that I claimed first. If they offer to give to me I will say "Nah, it's OK you earned it" just to piss them off.

One time a coworker and I stopped at a penny on the floor in the mall. We called the security guard over just to mess with her (We kind of knew her or were at least a familar site in the mall). So we told her that she has to take the money and log it, and if nobody claimed it we would be back in 30 days to claim it. She didn't know if we were crazy, joking or serious. So she radios in that someone had found some money (She didn't say penny) This started a chain of events that ate up half of our lunch hour.

We told her that we wanted the penny, but our company policy says that we have to report things like this. (kind of true, if we find money or merchandise on the floor or in our work area we are supposed to turn it back over to the store) So in a minute or two another guard shows up. This guy we know a little better but he has no sense of humor. He says to take the damn penny and move along. We were thinking like well the joke is over time to get going when another guard shows up. This guy saw the humor in it right away and told the guard with no sense of humor that he had to write up a report and put the penny in the lost and found locker. The guy with no sense of humor refused and said that the girl would have to write it up.

Now keep in mind that the average mall security guard has some, lets say issues in the logic department (not that two guys that would start messing with them don't have some loose screws themselves) The girl saw an out and said that she was on post or couldn't go down to the office and fill it out and stepped away.

So the guard without a sense of humor comes up with a plan after we start to question who is actually going to get the penny, me or my buddy. He says that he will give us each a penny to just go away, and we agree. But wait, it gets better, he doesn't have the change and isn't about to fork over any silver to two guys busting his balls about a penny.

So my buddy is like the short change champion of the world. He pulls out a handful of change and starts his speil. My head started to spin and I knew that it was a scam. He is good, the guard had his wallet out and was like ready to fork over a twenty and some singles for like 98 cents because there was two of us and he could pay us the rest later. It almost made sense because there were only two pennies in my buddys hand and you can't use the one on the floor because....Well, because it would confuse things or not balance out or it would make it $25.01 and then we are back to the one penny again and no tens to break the twenty or a five and ten ones for a ten or was it two tens for a five. Hell, I was almost ready to try and figure it out, but couldn't. By the time my buddy finally said nevermind you can pay us later everybody had some money in their hand trying to make change for a penny.

So the guard without a sense of humor walks away owing us two cents. The guard with a sense of humor laughs and calls us Abbot and Costello and walks away. My buddy and me just stand there for a second or two and then turn to the female guard on post that we started to mess with in the first place, and asked her who gets the penny that is still on the floor.


A penny on the floor.....one cent

Three security gaurds total manhours wasted.... 3@20 minutes= one hours wages

The look on the girls face.....worth every penny!

The penny on the floor? Don't know, we left it.

[budz]

Yup I pick up pennies, nickels, dimes off the floors of any store I walk into. I have a glass jar full of coins that I find in stores. I call the coins/money I find "Good Luck" money. I even found $20.00 in front of a Office Depot store & inside of a Compusa store. So it does pay to look on the floor and ground as you walk.

While I'm walking around the casinos in Las Vegas I check the slot bins for money as well! I once found $60.00 worth of $1.00 coins on a Dollar slot machine. I played $9.00 of it and won $100.00 then I cashed out the money to the sweet tune of $151.00!! It was free money for me so I wasn't complaining!!!

[SatStorm]

I use to work for pennies, so I give them value...

[TheFamilyMan]

Nowadays I never pick up a coin laying about outside, even if I was the one who dropped it.

[stantheman1976]

Yup I pick up pennies, nickels, dimes off the floors of any store I walk into. I have a glass jar full of coins that I find in stores. I call the coins/money I find "Good Luck" money. I even found $20.00 in front of a Office Depot store & inside of a Compusa store. So it does pay to look on the floor and ground as you walk.

While I'm walking around the casinos in Las Vegas I check the slot bins for money as well! I once found $60.00 worth of $1.00 coins on a Dollar slot machine. I played $9.00 of it and won $100.00 then I cashed out the money to the sweet tune of $151.00!! It was free money for me so I wasn't complaining!!!

Just be careful about checking for money in machines. Vegas may be different, but here in Mississippi it is considered "slot checking" and will get you at least a warning from security and if it happens multiple times a possible expulsion from the casino.

[handyguy]

I read some article that said you'd earn $7/hr picking them up.

[edDV]

Every year or so I empty the "loose pocket change" drawer and take the bucket to a Reno casino change window. Now they have penny slots, so they will take pennies too. Their machines sort random coins and even return the foreign coins

Last time it totalled to almost $140.

Grocery store change sorting machines take a heavy commission. Nevada doesn't.

[lordsmurf]

As long as it is not gross, sure.

[dphirschler]

If I invest a $100 and it earns $100, that's 100% profit. But if I find a penny, it's profit without ANY investment. You can't even measure that. Hell yeah I'd pick it up.


Darryl

[greymalkin]

I read some article that said you'd earn $7/hr picking them up.

I hardly think you will find 700 pennies in any given hour unless you hang out at the wishing well. A little bit of reasoning would easily dispel this article.

[gadgetguy]

I read some article that said you'd earn $7/hr picking them up.

I hardly think you will find 700 pennies in any given hour unless you hang out at the wishing well. A little bit of reasoning would easily dispel this article.

I've not read the article, but I'm sure that figure was based on the average amount of time it takes to pick up the penny, (a moment) divided into an hour and then multiplied by $0.01.

[yoda313]

Grocery store change sorting machines take a heavy commission. Nevada doesn't.

I saw now some will give you a gift card for amazon or something. It may even waive your fee if you take the gift card instead of cash. Don't remember the exact article though..

[ZAPPER]

If I invest a $100 and it earns $100, that's 100% profit. But if I find a penny, it's profit without ANY investment. You can't even measure that. Hell yeah I'd pick it up.


Darryl

Now that's the way to think!

[edDV]

If I invest a $100 and it earns $100, that's 100% profit. But if I find a penny, it's profit without ANY investment. You can't even measure that. Hell yeah I'd pick it up.


Darryl

Now that's the way to think!

That way of thinking makes the postman a millionaire in 15-25 years. Read the book.

[daamon]

@ yoda313:



Australia doesn't have pennies, dimes or quarters. Nor do the vast majority of the countries in "the rest of the world" outside of US borders - including Sweden. How about making the polls generic in future so that everyone can have a go - this is, after all, a global site.

[gregpolo]

@ yoda313:



Australia doesn't have pennies, dimes or quarters. Nor do the vast majority of the countries in "the rest of the world" outside of US borders - including Sweden. How about making the polls generic in future so that everyone can have a go - this is, after all, a global site.

Actually the standard for the US is the cent, as it is in Australia. You dont have a one cent denomination coin there (very smart move). However, I am sure you'd pick up a 5 cent coin, wouldn't you mate?

[edDV]

see below

[edDV]

"A Krona found is a Krona earned" -- I think Ben Franklin said that. Maybe not.

"A Penny found is a Penny earned" (quote from Ben Franklin's half brother per quick Google search)

[FulciLives]

I see my off-color joke went over well.

Oh well ... long time since I've seen a yellow card above my avatar.

Any newbies around I can bash ... might as well make it two LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[gll99]

This must be a guy thing.
I can't think of too many ladies stooping to pick up coins but some comments from the ladies could prove me wrong.

[AlecWest]

In rural Eastern Oregon, there used to be this guy who ran his own gas station and small store. And on the floor by the front counter was a quarter that he'd super-glued to the floor. Regular customers knew better than to try to pick it up. But he got a kick out of watching newcomers and tourists try, hehe.

[FulciLives]

In rural Eastern Oregon, there used to be this guy who ran his own gas station and small store. And on the floor by the front counter was a quarter that he'd super-glued to the floor. Regular customers knew better than to try to pick it up. But he got a kick out of watching newcomers and tourists try, hehe.

LOL that's funny !!!

I do recall a "fad" a few years back (at least I haven't seen any lately) where "flyers" would be made that look like a $20 and when you picked it up it was really a "flyer" for a new store opening up or a band trying to sell tickets to a gig or whatever.

I think that idea just made people angry which is probably why I don't see it anymore.

I did once find myself in a fancy department store and spotted a bill of some sort laying on the floor in the middle of a walkway area. I stepped on it and looked around ... trying to look like nothing was "up" ... no one was really near me so I bent down and it was a $20.00 bill!

You bet your ass I picked that up LOL

Truth be told I might have waited to see if someone said anything but there was no one around me at all so I just kept it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[edDV]

I once had a somewhat crazy girlfriend who got great happiness from searching low tide for fragments of sea worn glass. Go figure.