Every Cent I Take

Every Cent I Take
Every Coin You Place
Every change You Lay
Everything you forsake
I'll be picking up

Every Time I Find
Every Coin Is Mine
Every cent left behind
Every Penny Or Dime
I'll be picking up

Oh can't you see
Your change belongs to me
How a poor heart aches
With every change you forsake

Every Day Is Great
Every cent I stake
Every time you mistake
Every time you make haste
I'll be picking up

Since this year I've found a lot of change
I blog my results and it's rather strange
My friends wonder if I am deranged
All I know is that I keep finding street change
I keep picking up a penny, penny, please....

Every Cent I Take
Every Coin You Place
Every change you mislay
Everything you forsake
I'll be picking up

(Well, it was about time I took that song and made it my own. 2 pennies collected after work. 1 penny yesterday after seeing the movie Ratatouille.)

The Reliable Penny

Well, what can you say?

You can always find a penny.
They're really plenty.
You can always find a penny.
There are so many.
You can always find a penny.

Penny Row

On Thursday and Friday I found 3 pennies in the subway around my work.

Yesterday I went to Atlantic City for the first time. I didn't pick up any money there -- winning or otherwise. Glitzy veneer and what's the deal with the carpeting in the casinos? Does someone have a monopoly on the market? Just simple variations in the pattern.

At one point I was at a slot machine and looked over. There was a old gentleman betting away money. He had an oxygen tank with a tube leading up to his nose. I guess time was running out for his big money.

When I got back to NYC, I went to my subway at Bryant Park and found a quarter. Pretty good! Then yesterday evening, I was walking along 8th avenue and managed to find four pennies in 15 blocks.

Coin Ads

Here are some links to videos for/about coins or coin-related (and not so related) products:

Coin Clock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZx-gIMVYbY
US Coins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIY542kcJwY
"It's So Money": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOqJNkeaSoY
Coinstar Machine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9G3Qw24EYU
"Coin Slot" Cream....uhh...never mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzvAdUO0Gjo
Coin Dominoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLbME-pNbds
Bank Iowa Penny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJLIrtvsROA
Penny Racers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmft-uYIZEQ
Owl on Dollar Bill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpYAZE8o5s0
Australian Conversion to Dollar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZVEEs-RJpw
The Lodge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7svhp3omhHw
Axe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEY5BEYuC6A

The Crappy Dollar

Wow, the US Dollar sucks. Against the Euro. Against the Pound. Against the Canadian dollar???

"It rose to 96.51 U.S. cents at 4:35 p.m. in Toronto from 95.52 U.S. cents yesterday, reaching the highest since February 1977. One U.S. dollar buys C$1.0362."
Bloomberg article

I found two pennies today. Hopefully those will still be worth something by the end of the year. ;)

"Street Money"

So the blog for a day should be called "Street Money". I was reading in Prospect Park today and was walking back to the circle near the theatre. In the pedestrian lane, I came across two $1 bills. Yep. Paper money. The first time all year I've found some bills.

Oddly enough, it's not the most I've found at one place. That still belongs to July 7th when I found 261 pennies. A rather odd incident. But the money found today ranks as the second most I've found at one place.

Overall, I've found over $5 in the month of July. HOT SUMMER for COLD CASH.

Three's a crowd

I found three more pennies today. Two after I picked up a pizza and one after I had dinner at this new restaurant, Sidecar, which opened up on 5th avenue.

Clean and Easy

Yesterday I came across three pennies. All in subway stations.

Then this morning I found a quarter in my building's laundry room. That was easy. And clean.

At least I use legitimate currency to wash my clothes. Can't say that for everybody.....gives new meaning to the term "laundered currency"

2 and 2

Today I found 2 dimes and 2 pennies. Toodles!

Copper: The New Precious Metal

So I found 4 pennies during the day today. It's quite the going commodity:
"Take a penny out of your pocket and you’ll see what the national theft-fighting fuss is about.Copper.Thieves want it so desperately that they’ll take it from heating and air systems."
http://www.chattanoogapulse.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2007/07/18/469d1681c1022

After dinner at Steinhof, I came across a quarter that someone dropped, looked at it and then decided not to take it....and then later a dime by this deli. I owe all my money to lazy people. Face it, people who drop change, look at it and don't make the effort to recover their own money and don't pick it up are lazy. Like the person who dropped about $3 worth of change. L A F'ing LAZY. But hey, more money for the charity. Guess it's not so bad. :)

It's not a Cypriot coin

I found a coin today. It was not a Cypriot coin.

But a penny.

Recovering....

Still recovering from last night. It was my birthday yesterday.

So I picked up some change before I got to the place I had chosen to have my little shindig. I found two pennies and a dime.

As I was walking over to the bar, I thought, wow, that would've been funny if they had left a trail of pennies to the bar.

The party was a blast and yes, they dropped some change: 3 dimes and a penny. All in good tidings.

This morning I found a penny that was roasting in the sun on the sidewalk. It was pretty hot when I picked it up.

It's Gonna Be A Lovely Day

July 14. Best Day of The Year.

Yesterday I collected 3 pennies. 1 in the morning at my subway stop and two more during my lunch break.

This morning I found two pennies.

It's Gonna Be A Lovely Day.

What exactly are they drinking in Canada?

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_10630.aspx

When is a dime not a dime

when it's worth $1.5 million dollars.

Now it's the nickel

Well...penny, move aside. Looks like the nickel is having its own problems too:
A nickel is worth more than a dime

Cool site to check out to see how much your penny, nickel, dime, quarter, etc is worth (if you melted it down for the metal -- note the years of the coins):
http://www.coinflation.com/

And I found a penny today from 1981 at the Whitehall station. Oddly enough it's actually worth almost 2.5 cents.

Careless person.

Governors Penny

I took a bike ride with Time's Up today over to Governors Island. It was pretty cool. It also happened to be the day of the Figment imagination island festival. Consider it the after after party for the Mermaid Day parade in some ways. Lots of different activities, cool bands and odd assortments of artists.

As I was waiting for the ferry back to Manhattan I saw a penny.

"Scraps"

Before 7/7/7 ended, I found 10 more pennies. All near the W. 4th area -- previously dubbed as a "Money Zone". It's still holding up to its moniker.

And normally 10 pennies would be a pretty sizable amount. Except when you find 261 other coins in one spot.

All told, I found $2.83 cents yesterday. That is the most amount I've found on one day. And unlikely to be surpassed unless I found some paper money worth $5 or more.

And I almost added to that. After midnight, I found a quarter near my building. Falls upon today's count but hey, the "change mojo" was still working.

LUCKY 7/7/7 ! ! !

Boy did this day turn out to be LUCKY. However it started pretty normal.

I went on a bike ride from my place over to the West Side Highway and up around Herald Square. During my short trip I spotted 3 pennies at two intersections. Yes, I'm a geek and got off my bike and picked them up. Nothing special about that.

After I had gotten back home and rested a little, I went out for some pizza. I picked up a dime by the bus stop near the corner. Cool. While I was approaching the Catholic Church on PPW and saw about 5 pennies on the sidewalk. Hmm. Odd. Usually I see one or two but a group means something's up. Then I noticed a few more in the street.

I started to pick them up.

A kid sitting on the steps to the Church said, some lady had a bag and it broke. All these pennies fell out. And I looked around. It was like the sidewalk was covered in pennies. I gasped.

So I started picking them up. There were a lot! I stopped counting at 60. I maneuvered around the sidewalk and tried to pick them up as fast as I could. Someone came by and saw what I was doing and started picking up the change too. Oh, damn! I'm not going to get the total amount. Oh well.

BUT!

Being a GREAT Samaritan, she hands me what she had picked up. I said Thank you!

My pockets were bulging. With pennies, ahem.

So I went and got some pizza. Found a penny there and moseyed on home with my treasure find.

I counted the amount at home: 258 pennies. 2 Canadian pennies. 1 Bahamian penny.

Biggest find of the year!

Biggest find for one day for the year! Today's total adds up to (not including foreign currency) $2.73.

258 Pennies. Now that's some missing change, ladies.

Removed

I guess the "legacy" is over. The one sign at Connecticut Muffin was taken down. I noticed it wasn't there this morning.

Oh well.

Last night I managed to find 8 cents (a nickel and 3 pennies) after hanging out with a friend at a "Park Slope" pub on 4th avenue. My how boundaries change.

This morning I found a penny. Yay me.

The Wall

I was at a fine establishment yesterday celebrating the fourth with drinks and a bbq. And I just happened to sit at this one corner where part of the wall was covered in pennies. My friends had to restrain me or it could've been disastrous.

During the course of the evening, my friend was explaining my blog to the other one and dropped a quarter. Actually she tried to drop it, it fell into her umbrella and she shook it out. Sigh. It's going in the "friends" category.

But at least I did find a penny yesterday.

Include or ignore?

So for the few readers out there of this blog, I want to pose these questions. On numerous occasions, I have seen coins, primarily pennies, embedded in the street, pavement or some hard surface that would make it impossible for me to retrieve it. Does this get included in the tally or do I just say "tough luck" and have to pass on it? In a related question, I have often seen a penny that is within someone's personal comfort zone, say on the subway or sitting down at a table and it would be rather odd for me to approach them to retrieve the penny. To this day, I haven't included either of these occurrences simply because I did not get the penny. Should I alter my policy?

The missing MISSING sign

On my way home tonight after getting a rather cryptic clue as to where the final sign for the missing change could be I peered into a store and saw it posted on the wall. Obscure but not inconspicuous. Refrained but not hidden. Well placed. I won't take it down. In fact, I want to see how long it will remain there. It will become part of the legacy. Thank you AA and LR.

Prayers Answered

This evening I found a dime. A DIME! I was so overjoyed I sang Broadway songs throughout the streets. Well, not really. I actually spotted the coin a few blocks away and it was on the sidewalk amongst a few people milling about. There for the taking. And yet, no one did. Until, I showed up.

Rate of Change

Halfway through the year so I decided to figure out how much I collect per day.

My "rate of change" is about 6.7 cents a day.

That's right. Everyday, you may pass by about 7 cents.

Feel guilty, huh?

:P

2 for the money

During the day at lunch I found two pennies. Tonight I'm going to pray that tomorrow I pick up something other than a penny. It feels so monotonous to keep posting: picked up penny. picked up a penny. Sigh. I can't create money, guys. Just stuck with what I find.

Evening Constitution

My evening constitution of about an hour in my neighborhood yielded two pennies. Somebody drop something else. Please.

Sunday Dime

I found a dime at my bagel place.

Top 3 Amounts

The top three amounts I've found at one time are:

$1.19 along Water Street in this odd niche between two buildings during my lunch hour
$0.75 along 5th Avenue after I helped one of my friends move
$.0.63 at the CC ("Peniston") Village East Cinemas before DayWatch

Mid Year Audit

So I decided to count up the money that was lying in my plastic bag and on my desk that I've been collecting since the beginning of the year.

This does not include the 1st dollar that has been set aside in a separate container (i.e. a plastic cup). You always want to remember your first...dollar.

Here are the figures for my audit:
Pennies: $2.68
Nickels: $0.65
Dimes: $3.90
Quarters: $4.00
2 Canadian Pennies
5 Swiss Centimes

If you add that up, you'll come up with $11.22. Add the first dollar and that's $12.22. My tally indicates $11.67 (that was through yesterday). The difference is $0.55 over. I haven't included the money my friends have thrown down.

So why the discrepancy? A)My storage of the change isn't scientific and rather lax. B)I can't add when I do my daily total. C)"Penny drift". I may have accumulated some pennies here and there that were not dutifully recorded.

I acknowledge the accounting error of about 4.5%. So I will match my contribution at the end of the year and tack on 4.5%. I will also do a quarterly audit at the end of September. My other executive decision is to set the tally at $12.22 based on the findings of this investigation.

March of the Pennies

I saw the movie "Black Sheep" yesterday. Now I'm doing a doubletake whenever I hear bleating or see a sheep.

And I found two pennies near the 2nd Avenue F station. You can always count on pennies.