Pennies! By Zach Margolis
This is the change that my family and I have found in every year since 2017. It's our friendly little competition, and everyone's a winner (and I'm the biggest winner).
Results
Total coins picked up, year-over-year
Year in Detail
| Person | Total Coins | Total Value |
|---|---|---|
| Zach ● | 275 | 7.47 USD |
| Dad ● | 38 | 3.18 USD |
| Noah ● | 13 | 0.25 USD |
| Mom ● | 5 | 0.14 USD |
Timeline
- Penny
- Nickel
- Dime
- Quarter
- Dollar Bill
By Weekday
Number of coins picked up by weekday
By Coin
| Zach | 232 | 20 | 13 | 10 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dad | 23 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| Noah | 10 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Mom | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Methodology
We take pictures of coins we find on the ground (either in situ or once they've been picked up) and then message the pictures to a group chat with all of us. Almost all change is fair game, but we don't allow fishing in fountains (deliberately left change).
Each year, I manually scroll through our message history and log the results in a spreadsheet. I lightly process and turn that spreadsheet into a CSV used to power these visualizations. Most of the time we note what coins we find (such as "a scuffed penny" or "a dime and a nickel") but sometimes we forget, so I have to take a guess (a blurry dime and nickel with no reference are hard to tell apart).
Feel free to check out the source on GitHub!