All for $.07! Was it worth it? Absolutely.....

The park near the Seattle Times building.

First find of the day-a Lincoln Penny.

Finds for the day (2 pennies and a nickel)...junk too.

Woke up this morning and thought about digging some dirt. We have the Seattle Times printing faciltiy near our house. Next to the building is a huge park where people play frisbee, football, soccer and other events, and over the summer a lot of coins can be lost. This is where I decided to dig for the morning. It appeared that the grounds have been swept before because I covered a lot of ground without any signals from the detector. The ground was really marshy, but I continued on. The detector started hitting some signals, but they sounded and detected trash. Finally I hit a good tone, so I dug a plug of dirt. The hole was full of water and it was entirely muddy...what a mess. It took a while to find, but out surfaced the first coin-a Lincoln Penny. The next signal and hole that I dug was a two coin pull; a nickel and penny. The $.07 took me around 30 minutes and it was a muddy mess. My mission was to find something from the park, and I'm glad that I gave it a shot. On the way back to the truck I found a penny that added to The Lincoln Penny Project. Keep at it and happy hunting!

Daily total find: $.08

Above ground finds: $.01

Below ground finds: $.07

Total to date: $1.64 Day 3

Check out this Wheat Back Penny!

It was Thanksgiving day and we were on our way to Whidbey Island to spend turkey day with my family. The great thing about going to Whidbey is that you can drive around through Deception Pass or take the Washington State Ferry; both drives provide some awesome scenery. Since we got an early jump, we opted to take the ferry. During holiday weekends-the ferry can be a long wait if one doesn't get moving early. When Claire and I got on the boat, the ferry attendant guided us to our spot. If we would have parked one space away, we would have missed the find. As I opened the car door, I looked down (naturally). To my amazement-Honest Abe was staring up at me from the ferry boat deck. It appeared to be old, but I couldn't make out the date right away. Of course I turned it over to see if it had wheat ears-and indeed it did. It was a 1930 Wheatie! Wow...almost 80 years old, how cool! Earlier finds of the week didn't amount to much, but the wheat back made up for it.

My family will be getting a metal detector for Christmas. I had a couple detectors over 30 years ago, but never kept up with it. Because we have been finding all of these treasures above ground, we started thinking what gems could be under ground. We have decided on getting an Ace 250 Garrett detector.

Recent finds: $.41
Grand total to date: $32.48

Portland, Oregon produces zilch

Saturday morning started early for us. I needed to be at two different job sites to make sure the projects were going smooth. We also needed to be down in Vancouver, Washington by 2:00pm for Andrea's district volleyball finals that could bring her team to state. It's 175 miles to the tournament-and we got on the road at 11:20am. It was a torrential downpour most of the way down south, so we are glad that we took the truck. When we arrived at the match, the score was 4-4. The Greater St. Helens team is fifth in the state, and they beat Drea's team the first two games-which were close. Bothell Cougars beat their opponent the next two games. The best of five came down to one last duel. It was a fight to the end. Both teams played exceptionally well; it could have gone either way. Greater St. Helens came out on top-beathing Bothell 16-14-winning the match 3 games to 2.

As far as the hunt is concerned-we didn't find anything in Vancouver. Claire and I decided to travel a few miles down the highway to hit Portland, Oregon. We ended up buying some tennis shoes and ended up getting stumped on the finds in the state of Oregon. We looked for about 15-20 minutes at a few parking lots where we shopped, but came up empty. Washington State has been a much more coin finding friendly state, and it proved the theory at our first stop back in Washington for fuel at a Tacoma gas station. Claire and I ended up finding 3 pennies right outside of the truck's doors.

Hip Hip Hooray for the Lincoln Penny!

It's all about the Lincoln Penny. At least this blog, The Lincoln Penny Project, is about the one cent coin. This is the coin that everyone leaves behind, throws to the ground and neglects. Why? This is our 114th day of the project and take a look at how many Honest Abe's we've recovered...amazing! Not only is it the copper pennies that are left behind, it's been a lot more. The hunt is fun, a family event that we recommend to all.

Happy Hunting!

Lincoln Pennies total find to date: 341
This includes 3 wheat backs and 2 Canadians

114 finding days averages out to 3 pennies per day.

$.14 for the day!

When Andrea came home, she said that she tracked down $.07 for the day (one nickel and two pennies). I found the same amount-with the same coin combination. How many times does that happen....never. At least it hasn't happened since The Lincoln Penny Project started on July 12, 2009.

Daily total find: $.14
Grand total to date: $28.81
113 finding days averages out to $.25 per day

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.

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

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

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.

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.