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I thought it might be interesting if we came up with a list of places where we have found coins and/or currency. By places, I don't mean specific places like "the Walmart on the corner of Main and Broadway." Here is a sample of places to start, all where I've found coins in the past...

Checkout and self-checkout areas at grocery stores (change return containers)
Coinstar machines (on floor near, in change return, in sorting tray, and on ledge near tray)
Coworkers desk (former job) after he left the company
Fountain that was NOT one of those coin donation type fountains
Ground (inside stores)
Payphones (in change return and even on top of them)
Railroad tracks
Rolls of coins from banks (which contained extra coins- including penny rolls with dimes inside)
Street (outside stores)
Vending machines (in change return, on the floor, and even on top of the machines)

What other places can you think of where you've found money before, even if it was just a penny? This could be educational for some of us, who might realize that we never thought to look in certain places before. I can't take credit for this one, but a friend of mine found a bunch of silver coins inside a wall in an old burned out house he bought years ago.

Sorry, but finding money in your own pants doesn't count because it was yours all along, even if you didn't know it was there.

I'm looking forward to reading the responses to this one- there may be some very creative stuff here.

Should this be moved to a Tracking Thread? If so, could someone please tell me how to contact the Administrators and make this request?

Great thread idea!

• Couch cushions are always a good source.
  
• Lots of places in cars, but my favorite was after I bought a 66 AMC Rambler. Pulled up the floor carpeting and found six Ike dollars lined up along the edge.
  
• Unused or long-stored purses and clothing. Closets can be a goldmine.
  
• My family had a 1903 piano restored many years ago. The guy who took it apart said children frequently slip coins between the keys but we didn't find anything.

breaking down washers and dryers for scrap metal always some loose change

People also hide bills in books, weather just as a book mark or a good place to hide several more

Coin return in the exact change toll booth. I've also put the car in park to pick up tons of change dropped by previous cars (if there's no one behind me ). My wife HATES when I do that...lol.

One time I pulled up to a coin op air machine to fill up a low tire on my truck and the coin slot was jammed. I jammed a flathead screwdriver in the coin slot and a $1 coin popped out It only required two quarters to turn the machine on...I don't know what the guy was thinking by jamming a dollar coin in there...haha.

Take a penny trays

My mom and my aunt found $38,000.00 in cash in their uncles house after he passed away. He had it hid in his George Foreman grill! True story!

silversaddle1 wrote:My mom and my aunt found $38,000.00 in cash in their uncles house after he passed away. He had it hid in his George Foreman grill! True story!

I guess this wins! It reminded me of another find. My wife's grandmother had stashed cash all over her house and when she past away we had to search every pocket of every piece of clothing she owned because we kept finding more and more cash. After we went through everything we had a yard sale. Well, a woman was looking at one of her dressers and tried to chew me down on the price because one of the draws wouldn't close right, when I pulled it out to see if I could fix it there was $2400 taped to the bottom! I went ahead and just gave that woman the dresser for free ( after checking all the remain draws ).There's probably still cash in her old house somewhere...under the floor boards or in the walls probably..lol

My grandfather had a bowling bag. Everyone thought it had bowling ball inside. Kept it in his bedroom. He never bowled last 10 years of his life. Grampa dies, my Dad grabs the bag and it weighs a freakin' ton! Opens it up and its full of pennies, both U.S. and Canadian!

Fast forward a bunch of years. The generation below me (my sons, who have inherited my coin sniffer genes) and we are at Disney World Orlando waiting to get on the jungle cruise ride. Line was long so my boys wander over to the coin-op water jet machines that you can squirt the boaters as the ride moves by. They are searching for coins but they end up working on this one machine. Working it and working it but the line is moving and wife and I are yelling for them to get back. Finally, they come scrambling back holding an accordioned five dollar bill like they had won the lottery.

So, check bowling bags and Disney World.

I bought a "mystery box" here on RC earlier this year, it contained several books. Before I tossed them I flipped the pages on them, one book had the following inserted: Mexico 100 peso note of 25 March 1982, Mexico 50 peso note 1981, Confederate one dollar bill facsimile, and an Irish sweepstakes ticket with serial number from May 1952.

I always hit the drive-thrus at fast food places on early morning rides!

hobo finds wrote:breaking down washers and dryers for scrap metal always some loose change

Ditto on this, but I guess you have to be a scrapper.

When I was doing foreclosure inspections, I would always find pennies in bedrooms and laundry room if the folks left in a hurry. If they left in a real hurry, in the area around the front walk and driveway.

When doing demolition, I would always find them behind baseboards and under carpet tack strips.

One place I have always found coins is under the seats in cars. I always pop out the back seat and check under there when I buy or sell a car. Its a little more difficult to check under the front seats but there is usually money there as well. I once bought a board game at the local Goodwill. After purchase I was checking it out and there was a tupperware container in the box that contained around $5.00 in change. It was a horse race game and the money was used for betting or marking position or something.

tt

TXSTARFIRE wrote:One place I have always found coins is under the seats in cars. I always pop out the back seat and check under there when I buy or sell a car. Its a little more difficult to check under the front seats but there is usually money there as well.

Can attest. Went to put air in all four tires this morning and was always intrigued by the vac apparatus. No one around, so I unsnapped the canister housing and inside was a simple rubberized bowl to catch debris...with lots of coins visible! Emptied the bowl into a shopping bad in my trunk and sifted thru it at home. $1.41 in pennies, nickels and dimes, along with a 56D wheatie. Paid $1 for the air so I ended up 41 cents ahead. Also found a key and a hair barrette with 13 fake diamonds.

If no one's around I may do this more often.

coindood wrote:

TXSTARFIRE wrote:One place I have always found coins is under the seats in cars. I always pop out the back seat and check under there when I buy or sell a car. Its a little more difficult to check under the front seats but there is usually money there as well.

Can attest. Went to put air in all four tires this morning and was always intrigued by the vac apparatus. No one around, so I unsnapped the canister housing and inside was a simple rubberized bowl to catch debris...with lots of coins visible! Emptied the bowl into a shopping bad in my trunk and sifted thru it at home. $1.41 in pennies, nickels and dimes, along with a 56D wheatie. Paid $1 for the air so I ended up 41 cents ahead. Also found a key and a hair barrette with 13 fake diamonds.

If no one's around I may do this more often.

Opening up the vacuum canister is a great idea. Never thought of that one before.

When I am filling up on gas I always stroll around a bit to look for dropped change. Got a dime on Friday! Usually it'll just be a penny. Best find on the ground at a gas station was a couple years back when I found a $1 bill. My eyes are always to the ground in parking lots. I'll probably end up getting run over for that habit, but at least I will die with a pocket full of change!

NHsorter wrote:When I am filling up on gas I always stroll around a bit to look for dropped change. Got a dime on Friday! Usually it'll just be a penny. Best find on the ground at a gas station was a couple years back when I found a $1 bill. My eyes are always to the ground in parking lots. I'll probably end up getting run over for that habit, but at least I will die with a pocket full of change!

Keep your nose to the ground on all parking lots. I've found several $50's, $20's (aside from the random smaller change/bills), be particularly keen after a few nice days towards the end of winter (when all the snow/snow piles start to melt away).

Worked as a laundry mat attendant when I was working in high school (a great job to get paid and study/read), and can say that the sidewalls of the washers were a favorite goldmine (every shift at least once).

I have always thought that the melting snow piles would really pay off one day. So far, not for me. Not for lack of checking. There has to have been some great finds though. Certainly lots of trash in there!

A little off topic, but I had to tell my melting snow pile story. About 25 years ago I was working at an automobile dealership. During the winter I was wiping the snow off of my car windshield and after I got done I noticed that my wedding ring was gone. I brought the car into the shop and melted all of the snow off with hot water and checked everywhere that I could think of, but could not find it. The next spring one of the guys in the parts department found it in the parking lot where the snow had been plowed into a pile. It was undamaged. I was not expecting to ever see that ring again.

tt

My mom’s cousin was reading his father’s journal a few years ago, and stumbled upon a story where his father cursed about losing a double eagle while breaking in a horse. On a whim, he went to the old coral armed with a metal detector.

After finding many nails, and soda tabs… winner-winner. Gold.

Found a $5 bill in the middle of the cereal aisle at my local Kroger a week and a half ago. Sweet!

"Keep your nose to the ground on all parking lots. I've found several $50's, $20's (aside from the random smaller change/bills)"

Yeah, I found $400 in a bank envelope on a rare snowing evening in a parking lot. Aside from that, I've found cash 8 times in the last 3 years as I'm riding my bike around, with my eyes towards the ground (amounts = $10,1,1,1,10,20,8,11).

My brother once pulled a five dollar bill out of a river while on a canoeing trip.

I picked up a whole dime the other day off the floor of the bus......

trash cans beside the coin machines at banks..... picked up a couple Canadian quarters and 43 steelie this afternoon.