I'm a trash digger

I was at the bank today, and noticed a brass looking coin by the trashcan. It was a chuck-e-cheese token, but while there, I looked inside the trash and saw a boatload of odd looking coins.

I promptly dug through the trash and pulled them all out, setting all my pride aside, LOL.

WOULD YOU HAVE DONE THIS?

Anyway, here is what I found:

7 Chuck-e-Cheese tokens
3 Bay area Raceway tokens
3 Funsit Arcade tokens
1 Putput token

2 2002 1 Euro coins
1 2005 2 Euro coin
1 2002 10 Euro cents coin
1 2002 20 Euro cents coin
1 2007 2 Euro cents coin
1 1988 50 centavos Mexican coin
2 Lincoln cents (one copper)
1 Elongated cent (Space Center Houston)
1 Canadian 1 cent coin 2009
1 1997 5 Shillings coin from Kenya
1 1992 10 Centimes from France
1 1990 25 coin from Cayman Islands

2 coins I don't know what they are:
1 2002 5 coin with "Wu Jiao" on one side and "Zhongguo Renmin Yinhang" on the other with asain characters
1 coin that looks like a modern chinese cash coin....hole in the middle, asian characters around it


Would you be a trash digger for this small little haul?

 

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Sure, if I saw them in plain sight in the can. Probably wouldn't dig through anything though.

 

They were all in plain sight with only a few pieces of paper in there to look under....

 

Most certainly - I get weird looks at the quick marts when I walk across the parking lot because I saw a penny. And for a haul like this I most certainly would.

 

Dirt washes off man. No harm done, I would have done the same. You never know what people will throw out.

I was just rereading Frank Robinson's book last night, "Confessions of a Numismatic Fanatic", and he tells how he saw a Thomas Elder book destined for the trash heap one time. He took it since he thought it might be worth something, and it brought over $1000 at auction.

Nice find.

 

Used to take a yard stick with me during break time and fish coins out from under the vending machines and find a handful about every day, always dirty, dusty and sticky. I'd take them all to the bathroom sink to wash, in soap and water, along with my hands. Found my first silver dime and a high percentage of P's. Only reason I miss that job.

 

Did anyone feel sorry for you and offer you money while you were digging? lol

 

haha! good one! nice find by the way!!!

 

Proves mom was right, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

 

If they were in plain site, I would have snagged them too.

 

Sure, so long as there wasn't liquids, foods or anything nasty in there with everything.

Keep this up and you could fund a small junket to somewhere in Europe for holiday. Sell the rest in a bulk (by the lbs.) auction of world coins on eBay and turn those obsolete coins into usable cash.

Circulation coins are filthy to begin with, not like being in the trash did much to worsen that aspect of things.

 

Reminds me of that old Seinfeld episode when George ate the eclair out of the trash. TC

 

Well, I would wager most circulation coins are cleaner than your hands are. Paper money, now that is nasty. Nickel is a very clean metal, and copper is not bad bacteria wise. I read a report once on what is found on circulating currency, do not google it if you are eating!

In the old days, with silver in your pocket, you were actually protecting yourself from germs by handling your change. Silver is a natural anti-bacterial, and would kill the germs from your hands, (while leaving them greyish of course).

 

Probably. I was leaving Sanita Anita Rack track once with a group of our wives and friends when I noticed a ticket on the ground that looked back at me. Really. I don't know why, but I picked it up and checked it against the results of the race it was on (two back). Sure enough, it was a $20 exacta box with the winning horses ! I told everyone that I had found a winning ticket. Of course no one but my son believed me. But others saw me pick it up. I got it to a window and cashed it in for the $80+ payoff x4 ! Getting me more than $320 back.

When I first picked it up, one of the wifes' friends husbands remarked that he might have lost some money "But at least I kept my dignity". I got the last laughs as on the way to the car, these guys were picking up EVERY ticket on the ground. LOL

I have found them from time to time, generally just by glancing down and somehow the numbers jump back at you. I never stopped to pick up a lot of tickets off the ground, but I would glance at them for sure.

Of course, I would have dumped the trashcan upside down, picked through it for the coins and put all the trash back before the wife made me walk home. Things like that embarrass her.

gary

 

But you don't know how clean I am, so you'd probably loose your wager. ...I know well about the antibacterial qualities of the metals. Have read and researched it and quoted it on these threads myself from time to time. "born with a silver spoon in his mouth" is a phrase from a time with infant mortality was high, children in wealthy families who could afford silverware were far less likely to suffer from infections and disease than poorer children who ate from wooden spoons.

At any rate, the anti-bacterial argument about coins is just one aspect in regards to living organisms being unable to exist on metals that oxidize and kill off the bacteria outside of a living host. Coins ARE still filthy, an accumulation of dirt, grime, dead skin cells, metal corrosion, gum, tar, glue, wax, makeup, food, oils... you name it, money is nasty and when coins get that much gunk on them they're not clean. My hands don't build up gunk like that and if they do I clean them before touching myself, others or other things. Coins don't get washed as often as do one's hands (or as often as one's hands ought to be cleaned.)

 

I always keep a box of disposable latex gloves in the car.

Great find!

Chris

 

um, just so you know, um, I DID NOT eat anything that I found.

 

Well sometimes mine go for an accidental ride in the washer, so I am helping out my fellow citizens.

Um, yeah, I always wash my hands after handling currency, but after handling coins only if they look grey, which they frequently do.

 

of course you didn't, if you had, you'd probably in the bathroom hacking something up or worse... or in the hospital dealing with your mistake. LOL!

 

I am yet to find a trashcan next to the coin machine...each time I'm there I check the slots (yes the ones the receipts come out of) thinking that that is where the trash can is...talk about looking like an idiot...