Trick or treat?

It's Halloween and the morning began with Max's playoff game. They ended up losing 13-0. It was a great season and a lot of fun to participate as an assistant coach. Claire helped out with videoing on every other game, so it was a fun family event. We ended up hunting throughout the day finding $.62 (2 quarters and 12 pennies)in various places.

Andrea helped get Max ready for Halloween by painting up his face in camouflage. We went through the city of Bothell's parade scooping up some candy and seeing all of the cool displays. Then Andrea took us through the Highlands neighborhood for the real candy.

The rest of the night featured the movie "Ice Age-Dawn of the Dinosaurs."

The treat of the day landed Max a bunch of candy and the $.62. The trick was when Max found a Chinese coin in a coin return that he thought was a quarter. A great end to a Halloween!

Total daily find: $.62
Grand total to date: $28.62
111 finding days averages out to $.25 per day

Hallow's Eve brings in the coins!

It was a grand day at work and school for the family. Claire's students kept her busy-and spirit week turned out to be a success. I was checking in on both of our jobs-going back and forth a couple of times for dump and supplier runs and needed to stop for fuel. This was the only stop for the day that I had some spare hunting time. While I was fueling up at an AM/PM Station, I ran over to the air/water station and found $.27 (quarter and two pennies. At the end of Claire's day, she ended up finding a quarter in the hallway of the school.

We ended up going to Max's Halloween happening at his school. He dressed up in an old army uniform of mine that Claire altered. All of the students, teachers and parents thought that Max's make-up was the best....thanks to Claire!

We didn't get a chance to eat dinner-and it was late, so we stopped by the local Taco Bell and grabbed the goods. The hunt was not on at the Halloween happening, so Max wanted to hit the car wash on the way home. Claire and Max ended up finding the two pennies. Hallow's Eve ended up bringing in $.54 for the day!

Daily total $.54

Grand total to date: $28.00

110 finding days averages out to $.25 per day

What could $27.46 do for a charity?

The Lincoln Penny Project started on July 12, 2009. It began as a solo project hunting for coins-loose change at a camp site at Baker Lake. The first day I found $.38-which is shown in the photo. It evolved into a family project, a family mission- a game for all of us. Think about the places that you go over a week, month or year. Think about the vacations, the hotels, the airports, and the baseball stadiums that you vist. Have you thought about the money that you have dropped out of your pocket or purse when pulling out your keys or paying for something over the last year? People accidentally and at times purposely drop money and leave it behind for others to find. We are finding that kind of money on a daily basis without much effort.

Each week we accumulate more and add to the money pot find. This gets us thinking about a rainy day fund and money for a special charity. The FoodLifeline of Western Washington receives donations to help feed the hungry. For every dollar, Food Lifeline provides five meals to hungry people. If we donated half of our findings, we could help feed 65 people.

This is our 109th finding day. We haven't searched for coins or blogged about all of our finds, but this is the total of our finds since July 12, 2009.

Grand total to date: $27.46

Job site brings in an extra $.21 today!

The Lincoln Penny Project pulls in a little extra! We have a couple of jobs going right now; a siding and a roofing job. I also had a call from one of our commercial building accounts for a leak repair that I went out on. It appeared that the HVAC crew left me a little change on a mechanical unit-one dime, a nickel and six pennies. That was it for the day....

Daily total: $.21

Grand total to date: $27.46

109 finding days averages out to $.25 per day.

Max gets in on the action and finds $.33

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. No time to search for the coin today. After I picked up Max he said, "let's go to the car wash!" It's the car wash that results in the best finds. I told him that we didn't have any time and needed to get home, prepare dinner and do some homework. We compromised and went to the local Shell station by the air/water area. Max ended up finding $.33 (quarter, nickel and 3 pennies). Way to go Max-a great addition to The Lincoln Penny Project! He understands that some of our finds will be going to a charity of our choice and a rainy day fund. He's always excited for the hunt!

Daily total find: $.33

Grand total to date: $27.25

108 finding days averages out to $.25 per day.

Breakdown of finds for the week

Here is another breakdown for the week. We have been doing this breakdown post for over a month now. It's awesome to see the pot grow, and the weekly percentage increase shows great returns. Remember this has not taken a lot of effort on our part or we haven't gone completely out of our way. These are things that we do daily for our job, our business and our way of life. These are places that we have to go to, or places that are next door to the places that we need to be at. Again, this might exhaust an extra 15-30 minutes a day from our schedule. How much time do you waste? To us this is just part of our day-or our 15 minute break. If you are not looking, you will not find. Keep your eyes on the prize!

Breakdown of finds:

$5.00 (1) = $5.00

$1.00 (2) = $2.00

$.25 (41) + 2 Canadian = $10.75

$.10 (50) + 1 Canadian = $5.10

$.05 (19) = $.95

$.01 (312) = $3.12 (includes 3 wheat back pennies)

Total finds to date: $26.92

Pennies prove to be the easiest to spot and nickels are the most difficult of the coins to find.

Percentage of increase from previous weekly breakdowns.

9/29/09 Total finds to date: $13.33

10/6/09 Total finds to date: $17.23 (22.6% gain for the week)

10/13/09 Total finds to date: $20.02 (14% gain for the week)

10/20/09 Total finds to date: $21.28 (6% gain for the week)

10/27/09 Total finds to date: $26.92 (21% gain for the week)

Happy Hunting!

QFC and car wash brings in $.55 for the day

Another week has passed by, so that means a new breakdown of finds has been posted. Today started out pretty good for the finds. I went into QFC to grab a newspaper, and for the first time found $.15 in the copy machine coin return (nickel and dime). It's actually the first time that I ever looked in the coin return. Do you think that we missed out on some finds in the past?

After my son's football practice, we stopped by our favorite car wash and found one quarter and a nickel. The one Missouri coin helped our Washington State Quarters collection. We have eleven different states to date. We also ended up finding 10 pennies earlier at the parking lot at Top Foods.

Daily total find: $.55

Grand total to date: $26.92

107 finding days averages out to $.25 per day

Here's my morning cup of joe!

The ordinary Jane might go to the local coffee barista and pick up an average cup of joe. It might mean that this person goes 15 minutes out of their way for their morning fix. It could also be that this person might go in the afternoon for a second run-which calculates to shelling out some dough. We all get a set amount of time in a day-and how we use that time is precious. Here's what I'm getting at. I don't like coffee and I'm not much of a time waster. The time that I waste really doesn't feel like lost time.

Our family recently got on the money finding kick. Here's the scoop.... Lost change, coins, bills are everywhere. We are not putting a lot of time into hunting, searching, looking...etc., but we are finding. It's amazing. It's not a lot of money, but it's still incredible to come across a find of any kind. Why do people throw their money away? We are baffled. Are you?

What would you do if you found lost change on your errands? Our plan is to keep some for a rainy day fund or Disney fund, but also give back to a charity of our choice. We have considered the backpack program for hungry kids, a food lifeline program through Washington State or to cancer research. Granted it's not a lot of money yet, but each week we add to the pot.

We are spending less than 15 minutes a day on our quest for the coin, and it's not everyday that we are able to search. This equates to $1.00 per hour.....Can we raise this hourly rate? How about averaging more than a quarter a day. Come back to see how we are doing. We welcome you!

Daily total find: $.85

Grand total to date:$26.37

106 finding days averages out to $.25 per day.

This could equate to $91.25 per year.

Back to back Wheat Backs! Check out the Fred Meyer coin return find....

It was an early day out the door for Erich's soccer game. This one brought us all of the way out to Fall City for a 10:00am game. On the way to the game-we stopped for some Peet's Coffee and Whole Foods for some treats. While Claire was waiting for my hot chocolate and her caramel latte, I hit the Brown Bear Car Wash to hunt. I spotted a rare nickel and 8 pennies. One of the Lincoln's was a wheat backed penny (another rare find). Since our first money finding quest began on July 12, 2009, we have found only 15 nickels and 3 wheat back pennies-hence the rare nickel find.

Here we are outside of Peet's Coffee displaying our first find at Brown Bear Car Wash. Claire snapped a picture of me on the hunt.

It was off to shopping at Fred Meyer and Costco. As we were checking out of the grocery lane, I picked up our change in the change return and placed it in my pocket. There seemed to be more than a handful of change for some reason? When we got home, I emptied my pockets and counted the change. We received $1.71 more than our $.37 that was due to us. Two big pennies were spotted at Costco as well.

Daily total find: $1.86

Grand total to date: $25.52

105 finding days averages out to $.24

This could equate to $87.60 in one year

Late night Jack in the Box run nets us $.05 and another wheat back!

Max had an evening playoff football game, and they won 13-0. The first half of the game was tough-leaving the score 0-0. We hit Jack in the Box after the game. Next to where we parked was an empty space. Of course our eyes hit the ground searching for the next find. Five pennies show up magically. A 1954 Wheat Back was the find of the day.

Total daily find: $.05

Grand total to date: $23.71

104 finding days averages out to $.23 per day

Abracadabra! Now you see it, now you don't.....

Are we the only people that find lost coins or actually look for them? Everywhere we go coins surface around us for some reason. We don't go too far out of our way to look either...it's amazing. It might be 5-10 minutes a day, or an extra 100 steps from the parking lot to the car and back from a visit to the store or an errand. Maybe it's just that we are more aware.

Because I am out on the road going to job sites, I'll hit a couple of unplanned stops to see if I run into any stray coins. Car washes are one of my favorite places for hunting. Today I found $1.40 at one car wash. As I drove into the station, two cars were leaving and two people were washing their vehicles. Before I vacuumed my truck out, I found 4 quarters. They were jammed in the coin return. The other coins were on the concrete and around the garbage bins. We are still amazed that people are missing out.

Notice in the photo someone washing their truck. The vacuum station had one dime and a child's ring along with the 4 quarters that were jammed in the coin return. I left the child's ring on the concrete platform.

Total daily find: $1.40

Total finds to date: 23.66

103 finding days averages out to $.23 per day

This could equate to $83.95 in one year.

3 for the Babe!

Babe Ruth, "The Sultan of Swat," "The Bambino," New York Yankees Hall of Fame Great-Number 3 is one of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game. When my brother and I was growing up, Babe Ruth was one of our favorite ball players. The Seattle Mariners didn't exist in the early '70's, so it was history that we turned to, and Babe Ruth was it. We would write to former big league greats and wait at the mailbox for a returned letter. In 1974, my brother received a Hall of Fame plaque postcard signed from Mrs. Claire Ruth, Babe Ruth's wife. What an incredible treasure!

All of our life the "Number 3" represented something bigger than just the number-it was Babe Ruth! Whenever we heard the number 3, it was always "3 for the Babe!"

Last year Claire and I had the opportunity to go back to New York. The reason we made the trip was to see Yankee Stadium before the final game. This is the "House that Ruth built." How could we miss that? What an awesome trip!

We found 3 pennies yesterday. "3 for the Babe!"

Total finds to date: $22.26

Breakdown of Washington Quarters

Does anyone look at their change from a grocery purchase? How about pocket change that you throw into a jar at the end of the day? Did you follow the Washington Quarter on its new release of coins? The 50 State Quarter Program was launched in 1999 and lasted ten years. Each year produced five different coins with one of the 50 states in the union on the reverse of the coin. The United States Mint produced each quarter for about 10 weeks and will never be produced again.

Which quarter of this program do you think was released first? Which was the last? On December 7, 1787, Deleware was the first state admitted into the union-therefore it was the first quarter of the program released on January 4, 1999. Hawaii was the 50th state admitted in the union and the final quarter released.

Breakdown of quarters to date: 31 = $7.75

Washington Quarters 13

State Quarters 16

Canadian Quarters 2

Breakdown of State Quarters

Arizona (3)

Connecticut (1)

Georgia (2)

Idaho (1)

Kansas (1)

Nebraska (1)

New York (1)

North Carolina (2)

Rhode Island (2)

Washington (1)

We need 40 more states to go!

First wheat back find since this quest began!

Wow! Finally the first wheat back penny uncovered. It's not like we took a metal detector over some land, dug down several inches and pulled up a treasure. This Lincoln Wheat Back Penny was sitting out in the open for all to see. It's a 1954S that's in decent shape for being 50+ years old. It was found at one of my favorite car wash stations. I needed to vacuum my truck out and noticed the Lincoln's Wheat Back staring up at me near my left front tire.

Before I used the vacuum, I toured the station-doing my rounds for the find. This one stop produced $.53 (2 quarters and 3 pennies). This sum was the same as yesterday. An earlier stop at Wal Mart brought in 6 pennies. The early morning find's total is $.59. Not bad!

Back to the car wash station. One vacuum area had a set of keys on the pavement. I snapped a picture of it and held on to the keys. The attendant was just pulling up while I was vacuuming. When I finished the job, I brought the keys up to him-letting him know what I found. He thanked me and asked if I wanted a free car wash. I thanked him and said I need to get to a job site. What an awesome day!

Update for the rest of the day. We ended up finding an additional $.36. The find came up with a Canadian quarter, one dime and a penny.

Total daily find: $.95

Grand total to date: $22.23

101 finding days averages out to $.22 per day.

Breakdown of finds for the week! 100th day totals

The 100th day of finding brings in $.53. The sum brought in 2 quarters and 3 pennies for the day-jumping up our total find to date to $21.28. We didn't have an opportunity to post about a few small finds during the week, so we are off a bit on earlier posts. Check out the first find of the day that couldn't be lifted out of the concrete.

Breakdown of finds for the week. Last week's total was $20.02.

$5.00 (1) = $5.00
$1.00 (2) = $2.00
$.25 (28)+ 1 Canadian = $7.25
$.10 (38) + 1 Canadian = $3.90
$.05 (14) = $.70
$.01 (241)+ 2 Canadian = $2.43

Grand total to date: $21.28, up $1.26 for the week.
Total percentage increase in one week = 6%
100th finding day averages out to $.21 per day

What will the 100th day of finding bring?

This is the 100th day since the first documented find started on July 12, 2009. That first day we found $.38, which began the craze! To us it's like hunting for buried treasure, only this treasure is out in the open for all to see. It's baffling that people acutally walk by coins without picking them up-or leave them behind on purpose.

The breakdown of finds for the week will be posted later this evening. Stay tuned!

99th finding day nets us 7 Lincolns!

It was only one stop for hunting today. It happened to be a car wash that I've never been at. The first vacuum station that I parked my truck at produced one shiny Lincoln. I toured the parking lot and came up with a total of seven pennies. Not a bad stop, but that was it for the day. Tomorrow is the next breakdown of finds. It's been a tough week for the hunt. Can't win em all!

Daily finds: $.07

Grand total to date: $20.53

99 Finding days averages out to $.21 per day.

Max's football team makes it to the playoffs!

Max had a birthday party to go to prior to his big football game that could put him in the playoffs. At his party we found a Lincoln Penny face up. We knew that it would be a perfect day! The party went well. The football playoff was a 5 game shootout. All of the teams in the division were 5-2 for the season. Max plays tight end and shares some defensive positions. We won the coin toss and opted to receive the ball first. On the first play we fumbled the ball on the snap, but recovered. We ended up getting a first down and scored on the next play. The team picked up the extra point. Now we were on defense. We needed to hold the team to move on to the playoffs. They held the opponent as long as they could, but they ended up scoring. Now it was the extra point. Max was called in to help stop the play. They came to his side. The ball was snapped and the running back took the handoff trying to bust through the line. Everything was in slow motion. The back is breaking through the line. Two guys grab on to the runner and one of them is number 21-Max-grabbing the runner-stopping him at the one yard line. The opponent is denied of the extra point-losing the shootout 7-6. Max's team advances to the finals. Awesome!!

Daily find $.28

Grand total to date: $20.46

98 finding days averages out to $.21 per day. Check out Max's number.....equals our average daily find!

Rain or shine? The hunt is on!

The last couple of days....one word, FLOP. Today's finds already beat the last two days by 7x. Even if it was a couple of pennies-7 times the previous is a better day! This time it was a Chevron station where the find occurred. I pulled my rig up to a parking spot and stopped for a bit, but decided to go to the outside curb. When I opened my door, two Lincolns were yelling, "pick me up!" The one Chevron stop pulled in $.13 for The Lincoln Penny Project. Max ended up finding one penny at the gas station. He's pumped about his find!

Total daily find: $.14

Grand total to date $20.18

96 finding days averages out to $.21 per day

This could equate to $76.65 in one year

Put in my 2 cents!

That's all she wrote! 2 cents for the day-(1 Canadian). These 2 coins were spotted at the Coinstar machine on the floor.

When someone says, "here's my 2 cents, or let me put in my 2 cents", it's normally advice given when not requested. It originates from the "put my two bits in," an older poker term where one makes a small bet (ante) to enter the play. Two bits means one quarter.

The last two days brought in a total of 2 pennies. Our daily average over the last 95 days has been $.21.

Total find for the day: $.02

Grand total: $20.04

95 finding days averages out to $.21

Any money today? If you are not out searching, you will not find a thing!

If the miner wasn't out searching or panning for gold, he wouldn't come up with anything. It's the same thing with finding coins or cash. We came up with zip, zilch, nil, zero....absolutely nothing. Unfortunately we didn't really have the opportunity to hunt. The Lincoln Penny Project came up empty today.

Total find for the day: nada

Breakdown of the finds. Up 14% from one week ago!

Another week has passed by, so here is the breakdown that follows:
Last week's total equaled $17.23 This week we jumped up by 14%-which added $2.79 to our bottom line. This averages out to approximately $.40 per day for the seven day period.
$5.00 total 1 = $5.00

$1.00 total 2 = $2.00

$.25 total 24 + 1 Canadian = $6.25

$.10 total 37 + 1 Canadian = $3.80

$.05 total 14 = $.70

$.01 total 223 + 1 Canadian = $2.24

Grand total to date: $20.02

93 finding days averages out to $.21 per day

Three pennies catapult us over $20.00!

It was a busy work day-so coin hunting was non-existent. I did however hit one parking lot near a job site and found something. When I got out of the truck, three pennies were placed strategically by my front left tire.

The Costco evening shopping trip added one more penny to the bottom line.

We passed the $20.00 mark in a little more than three months. This is money that we have found on the ground that other people accidentally or intentionally dropped. It's been a fun mission/project so far-and we plan to keep it up as long as people continue to leave change on the ground for us. What will the magic number be over the next three months? Will we accumulate more or less money? Can we maintain a $.21 per day average or exceed it?

What can $20.00 buy today? It can purchase over 7.5 gallons of gas-which could fill up a Smart Car. It could get one person into a movie theater-and maybe some popcorn. How about several Happy Meals at Mickey D's?

Total find for the day: $.04

Drea earlier find: $.01

Grand total to date $20.02

93 finding days averages out to $.21 per day.

Another Win Leads To Another Penny In The Pocket!

Thank goodness I won that drill in practice. If I hadn't then I wouldn't of found one little penny in the far corner of the gym just waiting for me to pick him up!!!

Just a little fun in my day!

Has anyone played the 52 penny pick up game? We have!

Today was the biggest one day penny find at one location for us yet. This blog is called the Lincoln Penny Project, and the penny proves to be the easiest money find of any coin or bill since we started the project back on July 12, 2009. It's still puzzling to find so many copper coins strewn about. These pennies were found next to the vacuum station at a car wash. Obviously the person that dropped these coins out of their car sees the penny of having no value. Why? When added up, they spend the same. Check out the picture. When I drove up, two dimes and one penny was on the opposite side of the garbage bin on the ground and one penny sat on the concrete step. As I walked around to pick up the coin on the border of the garbage can, all of the copper coins were staring up at me. I could hardly believe my eyes. I picked up the coins one by one thinking that I uncovered a treasure. Fifty-two pennies and two dimes were found at this one location. Unbelievable!

Total daily find: $.72
Earlier find by Drea: .01
Grand total to date: $19.97
92 finding days averages out to $.21 per day.

Another Thank Heaven for 7-11 moment!

WHAT IS THIS!

So far every single football game 7-11 slurpee run that I have been on has resulted in a one cent find! i think that equals just about 3 or 4 cents just in 7-11 visits after high school football games!

This week it was kiro 7's game of the week game and we had left early because the game got boring. We were yet again smashing them....(not anything new might I add)

We had thought that the game was going to be tough because WHS had scored the first 3 pionts on a field goal, but then we got a touchdown....and another....and another.....and yet again. The final score was 53-3.....we smashed...

But good thing we left early or I wouldn't have found a little lincoln that had caught my eye on the way out from our slurpee run!

A Sunday morning drive

Sunday proved to be a better day for hunting. We had a day trip planned for Coupeville on Whidbey Island. Our plan was to drive around and stop at Deception Pass for a hike down to the beach-and then go to my mom's in Coupeville to help her put outdoor things away for the winter. Before our hike, I found a quarter sitting in the vending machine where the pop gets dispensed. Was someone pitching quarters? It appears that I was the winner. That was our most important find of the day. We always like to note a find that links to a special event/hike, etc. Other noted finds of the day consisted of Claire's quarter find at the car wash, her penny find at Topp Foods in Burlington, and 3 cents at another car was near home.

I ended up finding $.21 at a Texaco in Freeland-and a nickel was waiting for me at a newspaper coin return at the ferry landing in Clinton. Not a bad day! Check out the cool, round rocks that resemble coins.

Daily find total: $.80

Grand total to date: $19.24

91 finding days averages out to .21 per day.

A weak day for a Saturday!

We were on the hunt. It was Claire's mission to beat me on the finds for the day. As we entered QFC, she immediately spots the nickel on the floor...right at the entrance! A man watches her pick it up-and says, "great eye!" I'm determined to match it. I spot the first coin-a penny. Her Jefferson has my lonely Lincoln beat. Eventually I came up with an additional 3 cents, but she ended up winning 5-4. We are however up $.09!

Total find for the day: $.09
Grand total: $18.44
90 finding days averages out to $.20 per day.

A breast cancer awareness day!

We have trained for 5k races and triathlons-and most of the events raise funds for charities. We have participated in the Susan G. Komen-Race for the Cure event-which has raised a lot of money. On this particular day, I went into Safeway to buy a newspaper. I gave the clerk $.75-and he asked if I would like to donate the balance of the $1.00 for breast cancer. I said, "absolutely!" Granted it was only $.25, but everything helps. As I got back to my truck, on the pavement next to me was $.26. It was like a pay it forward moment!

Total for the day $.49
Grand total to date: $18.35

Look what Max found!

The first find of the day was when I was passing out flyers around a job site we were working on. I found Mr. Roosevelt face up as I was making the rounds.

Max and I stopped by the our favorite car wash on the way home after our post office visit. Max couldn't believe what he saw in the garbage; a shiny Washington Quarter. He also found 3 pennies right by the vacuum section. The last find was another quarter-which I spotted on the ground near one of the car wash stalls.

Daily find: $.63

Total to date: $17.86

87 finding days averages out to $.20 per day