Coins from Public Fountain - Advice Needed

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by 2manycoins, Jul 22, 2019.

  1. Mountain Man

    Mountain Man Supporter! Supporter

    After they are dried, sell them, as is, by the pound on eBay.
     
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  3. Coin buyer

    Coin buyer Member

    I was in a Clinic in North Dakota for a Dr. Appointment. The Clinic is like 6-7 stories high, with a walk around center top to bottom. On ground floor is a huge water fountain consisting of 3 tiers.
    Anyway needless to say this fountain receives (a lot) of coin attention.
    Nowhere was there a sign or any notification whatsoever about depositing coins into the water fountain or anything to do concerning said fountain?
    So anyway on the 2nd tier of this fountain I easily looked and observed two Walking Liberty Halves, one heads up, one down. Looking further I could easily see for sure 4-5 Silver Quarters.
    L S S, I took my umbrella and moved the coins to within my reach, made positive I D
    Then I went to the Cafeteria and bought a roll of quarters. Went back to the fountain, grabbed the heavily worn 2 Halves and 3 late dated 50’s quarters, opened and placed full $10.00 roll of quarters in there place. While sitting in lobby still awaiting my name to be called for Dr., about 20 minutes had passed when a female Security Officer approached me? I was informed someone had reported me as having stolen money from the fountain and after reviewing video it did appear she stated, as myself doing such?
    Come to discover that by LAW, the coins in fountain do not belong to the Clinic and that as with ANY discovered property said property has to be turned over to local Law Enforcement Agencies etc.
    M. O. S. Don’t exchange ANY change for other change. My best guess is the next thing they will want to make a criminal charge of is a Littering charge as one throws loose change into the fountain?
    I on the other hand was sternly advised not to EVER take anything out of the fountains. Wonder what would happen if a child were to splash around in one, guess you just couldn’t legally retrieve your child, Lol
    “Good Grief”
     
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  4. Legomaster1

    Legomaster1 Cointalk Patron

    Strange that there was a camera near the fountain when no one was to claim the change in it.
    Also, who would toss silver coinage in a fountain, anyways?
     
  5. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Have the boy scouts come (or whoever) take the change away, they will
    deal with cleaning, drying and redeeming it, and you get a charitable tax donation.
     
  6. Legomaster1

    Legomaster1 Cointalk Patron

    If you want to keep the coins-
    you could use a large sieve and wash all the coins in it.
    Then, prepare a towel- after this, you can turn in dry coins to the coin counting machine.

    Like @Collecting Nut said, in the future, you could install a sign instructing patrons of the park to cease throwing change in the fountain.

    If you are open to the option of giving the coins away, call over some volunteers from a nonprofit organization (like Michael and Collecting Nut said), and they will deal with the coinage.
     
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  7. willieboyd2

    willieboyd2 First Class Poster

    I would stage a contest, $1 entry fee to wade around for one minute and scoop up coins using hands only, no tools.

    :)
     
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  8. TexAg

    TexAg Well-Known Member

    Like others have said, choose a charitable organization to donate the fountain coins to. Then ask them to put up a box next to the fountain with a sign saying, "Please do not toss coins in the fountain! If you would like, you can place your donations in this box on behalf of Boy Scouts of America (or whoever)". Oh, and put a lock on the box.

    Ever been to the Trevi Fountain in Rome? Talk about coins thrown into a fountain! Read the following link it will amaze. Oh, and the legend must be true. The wife and I threw some coins into the Trevi back in 2005 and a few years later we returned to Rome!

    https://www.meridian.net/italy/2016/12/22/14060042/trevi-fountain-rome
     
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  9. Coin buyer

    Coin buyer Member

    Legomaster1, Good questions, as for the security camera it appeared to be covering a great deal of area of which the fountain was taken into account? If you’ve never been in a very large Medical Clinic before you’d understand that there are Security Camera almost everywhere, probably many many more then can even be seen in the open?
    As to why someone dropped (Silver) coins into the fountain, your guess is as good as mine? Most likely to get a rise out of someone when they were discovered, who knows and really, “who cares”?
    No different then reading about CT members on here that for the “fun” of it decide to put Buffalo Nickels, Winged Liberties, Kennedy Halves, Wheat Cents etc back into circulation. That and even Silver Certificates have been often mentioned.
    So in reality, nothing at (All) strange about location of said camera(s) OR Silver Coins tossed into a fountain!!! IMHO
     
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  10. NYandW

    NYandW Makes Cents!

    Contact the Boy Scouts to perform this service. It helps them get credit for badges.
     
  11. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Sure wish I had said that. Oh wait a minute, NVM.

     
  12. chrisild

    chrisild Coin Collector

    Just a side note: Last year they even collected €1.5m there. :) What that article does not mention (not sure when it was "updated") is that the city's agreement with Caritas expired earlier this year, and there has been quite a debate about where the money should go instead. Anyway, with such amounts it probably makes sense to do all this cleaning work. In a case like this however ... agreed about the scouts.

    Christian
     
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  13. Conder101

    Conder101 Numismatist

    You could, but they will still throw them in the fountain. Humans just seem to have this need to throw things into bodies of water.
     
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