Here is a great video from fellow Neil, Neil deGrasse Tyson.
For those who didn't watch the video, he states Bill Gates net worth is $50B. He makes a point that an average person like himself wouldn't probably pick up a penny (1c), a nickel (5c), possibly a dime (10c), but most likely a quarter (25c) would be most people's minimum. If you scale it up to Bill Gates' net worth, the equivalent would be $45,000. It's a nonsense equation but quite entertaining.
That's a good idea giving money you find to someone sleeping on the streets.
My only concern is what they are gonna spent this money on?
I know some of the people on the street are suffering from mental illness, but for others we could be feeding a habit and making things worse.
I once saw a kid begging around at different restaurants, each restaurant promptly shooed him away. One guy actually tried to stop the restaurant and offered to pay for his meal. But the owner explained if the kid wanted food that's fine not a problem, but he always comes to annoy them for cash.
I've thought about that too, several times. There was this one incident when I gave a $30 to a man on the streets who was telling me that his wife took his kid away and he's trying to get back to her but he has no money for transport etc.
Then just minutes later I realise it might very possibly be a lie. I felt shitty for some time then I realise there's always gonna be unscrupulous people and meeting one must not deter be from helping a person in genuine need.
I am more wary now. I actually know a couple of people(in person) who struggle dearly, so that's whom I help.
Good topic. I can't decide between 20c or 50c. I guess it would depend on how I feel on the day
A 1930 penny would be worth bending over for. So yeah, one cent.
Just remembered i was cleaning the workshop at work and they have a vending machine…. When i got underneath it i found 80c worth of coins. That was pretty cool.
but now thinking about it all i never carry cash on me as i always use my cards and if i did have cash i would forget about it and my wife will scim my wallet and all would be gone.
now i have started giving coins to my daughter as i hate carrying them and she pops them in her purse she is only 2 but knows how to save… All up i think she has 30 dollars worth of coins in her purse and a few notes i have no idea where they came from but soon it will be going into her dollar mite account.
Voted 5c. All free money is good!
That can buy FIVE $0.01 Gearbest deals or FIVE 1c Scoopon movie tickets.
I've paid $1.80 at Officeworks all in 5c coins a few times.
If I have only 95 cents in hand, I can't say I have a dollar…so pickup 5c is worth to make a dollar.
Strangely enough, I literally just found a $10 note on the floor at my local woolies..
Did I pick it up? Of course.
Did I keep it? No.
"Excuse me sir, has anyone handed in a $10 note to lost and found? I dropped one in here a bit earlier."
"Nope."
+1 as it is reality, despite me disagreeing with it.
I pick up the 5c coins and add them to my collection in the car. It doesn't take long to build up to a couple of dollars which often comes in handy going through drive throughs or what ever
I once found $35 at work , on the floor. Spent 1 hr looking for the owner until i found them.
They thanked me and bought me lunch.
The other day an Indian business man in suits dropped few $1 and $2 coins in the crowded North shore line train, he was too ashamed to pick it up, I was too tempted to pick up few $2 coins but train was too crowded and no one bothered to pick up
I keep an eye out for half pennys. 1890 to 1911.
I will also pick up 1,2,5,10, 20, round 50, and 50 ¢ bits
Any larger amount I take to police station. Will leave message at lost and found in stores (fun discussion with floor security).
3 month non claim then back to finder. There has been too many bad movies about things left in lost and found sections of shopping centres and clubs.
I returned a wallet with a few hundred dollars in it to a lost and found counter at DJ but always pick up 5cents coin whenever I see one. It is not about the entitlement to future benefits value but not to waste of resources of how the 5cents coins are made.
Where is 1¢ option. I would pick one cent over $2. 1¢ would make a good collection.
what about if it's in the urinal? How much would it have to be?
Depends if there is a rubber glove
Coins I wouldn't pick up, like the fifty cents I saw in a Myki return slot the other day….not worth the hassle of it being a trick or candid camera setup or infected with the Ebola virus or the owner standing behind me!
Cash blowing on the ground I would pick up, then bring it over to the nearest cop shop. If I don't, some bastard will pocket it and buy cigarettes, alcohol, drugs…or junk food! This actually happened to me as a kid, after several weeks the cops gave me the cash it was unclaimed.
At train ticket machines, i wouldnt take any silver coin change.
I wonder what the next person using the machine would think.
where the 5 dollar option :D
I remember a time walking at Coles. I was finished buying and about to leave the store. A lady just entered the store and as we were heading towards each other. We both saw $20 on the floor. She went to pick it up and I stared at her. She looked very embarassdd and looked at me whilst holding the note and getting nackt up. She gradually let it back down and walked pass. I waited there for 3 mins waiting for someone to return there as if they for looking for something to return the money. No one came so I went to pick it up and bought a scratchie and some food for the family.
For me, anything above 20 cents I pick up. Overtime, they do add up!
Step son came home with a $100 note he'd found on the way to the corner shop when he was about 10. He was always up to mischief, and came home with a nervous kind of look on his face - turned out it was just because he couldn't get over the fact he'd just found a $100 note. lol.
Explained to him that it could have been food money for a pensioner etc etc and took him down to the police station to hand it in. 3 months later when a $100 cheque turned up he was thrilled.
There was a 10 cent coin sitting on the toilet floor for months. I finally decided to pick it up and a small spider appeared.
It's still there with a dead spider under it now. So 20 cents and up for me.
Is it negotiable…how about 15c & a scorpion?
Let's say it takes you 3 seconds to pick up a 5cent piece. Earning money at that rate is $1/minute or $60/hour - tax free!!
Good analogy. So if you are earning more than that, don't waste your time?
When I was small, my mum would always tell me off for putting my hand into the change section of parking meters to and from school. Made at least $10 over the years. She frowned at me. Maybe cus it made us look like scavengers.
5c is the minimum I've picked up.
Lucky the other day at Woolies, an older lady stopped me leaving as I forgot to collect $40 cash from the self-serve register. Should I feel bad the smallest amount I have lost is about $4 in coins and over the years have found well over $30?
Funniest thing Iv seee is that some guy on purpose super glued 5x$2 coins on the ground and you see people mindlessly spend more than 10mins trying to remove it!
Iphone version is just pure gold.
A friend of mine goes running everyday and often finds money on his running trail. He often finds notes and gold coins. But I was curious, what is the lowest amount of money the OzBargain community would bend down for?
Exit only, always!
Well how much? ;)
You'll need a Smart Xiaomi Toilet Seat to clean up after that
Moneys money. Pick up regardless of amount, only to throw it in the jar at home.
Where's your friend's running trail?
my friend goes running and often finds notes and gold coins
Good heavens, where does your friend live? Vaucluse? Mosman?
I'll join him :P
My tip is to look under railway station vending machines in suburbs where passengers are well dressed.
Nobody crawls on the ground in a business suit to recover silver that rolls under.
Unfortunately, I mentioned this to one of my kids, and now my spouse rouses on me every time her beautiful child crawls in the filth looking for money.
Haha the vending machines near all the train stations around me are literally 20-30mm off the ground.
Otherwise I most certainly would :)
Well it’s not Mt Druit or Blacktown
Haha no shit. Thought people in Blacktown were loaded.
Well to be fair, they are - just in a different context xD
Good heavens, where does your friend live? Vaucluse? Mosman?
Mosmanites use card only or smartwatches.
Kangal claims to have some expired African coins they reckon will challenge me, but I will pick up any coin if I am not in a rush.
If in a hurry, I have twice stepped past 5c pieces. I regret this a little, so might back track, because if I just had a rule to pick up every coin, I wouldn't have the moment of hesitation as I think about it.
A joke about economists and the free market:
An economist and his friend are walking down the street when the friend sees a ten dollar bill on the sidewalk.
“Look,” he says, “it’s a ten dollar bill”.
“Nonsense,” says the economist. “If that was a ten dollar bill, someone would have picked it up by now.”
Many years ago when I was in the US, I spotted what looked like a folded buck in a parking lot. Turned out to be a tri-fold pamphlet with a reproduction in the middle of 1/3 of a dollar bill. Felt quite symbolic to me of the country; everything is not what it seems.
At least you didn't fall victim to the superglued coin trick ahaha
Dignity still intact!
tri-fold pamphlet with a reproduction in the middle of 1/3 of a dollar bill
Someone lost their tip from waiting tables: http://www.businessinsider.com/20-tip-bible-pamphlet-2015-12.
Yours was only $1 though? That's cheap.
(Never mind the while tipping thing in the USA is weird.)
Yeah, looks they've kept up with inflation. Might have been a fake 1/3 $10 bill, it was so long ago that mobiles hadn't been invented yet, let alone mobile cameras, so I don't have a photo.
SCIENTOLIGIST ~ If she was hot…
No idea, if it's of high value I'll try to find the person who lost it and if not possible I'll give it to a worthy charity, or a struggling person. I won't keep it or spend it because in my book that is wrong. I'd hate to be a person I don't like.