This is my annual found change report! It started out with just my family in 2017. In 2022, a few friends started contributing as well and it's become one of my most favorite annual traditions to look back at the year. It's our friendly little competition, and everyone's a winner (and I'm the biggest winner).
Results
Looking at year-over-year summaries for just my family, I am maintaining my lead, while Mom has continued to find success after her big improvment last year. Dad improved a lot this year compared to last, and Noah continues to participate.
A streak is two or more consecutive days of finds.
Person
Division
Count#
Longest streakMax
Start
End
● Zach
Family
33
8 daysd
May 28
Jun 4
● Mom
Family
11
3 daysd
Jan 6
Jan 8
By Weekday
Number of pickups by weekday
By Type
Penny
Nickel
Dime
Quarter
Dollar Bill
2 Euro Cent
10 Euro Cent
● Zach
188
11
32
7
1
2
● Mom
72
7
25
7
1
● Dad
63
2
2
1
● Noah
7
1
3
Awards
As this report has gotten bigger and bigger each year, I think it's easy to lose track of how much is going on. I've added these awards to highlight a few different kinds of contributions.
Top Friends
Since this project started out as family-only, I think it's important to recognize the friends who are holding their own! Inspired by MySpace, this award category has up to 8 top friends.
Person
2025
● Alex G🥇
67
● Amanda F🥈
48
● Davida M🥉
44
● Dominica
32
● Sarah R
30
● Leah TK
22
● Natalia OM
12
● Ethan S
11
Rookie of the Year
Awarded to the new person this year who found the most things.
Person
2025
● Davida M🥇
44
● Leah TK🥈
22
● Natalia OM🥉
12
● Tiffany A
11
● Ed O
5
Most Improved
Awarded to the people who found the most compared to the previous year, by percent and by count.
By Count
Person
Division
Improvement
2025
2024
● Dad🥇
Family
+48
68
20
● Zach🥈
Family
+28
241
213
● Sarah R🥉
Friends
+20
30
10
● Mandy
Friends
+10
11
1
● Noah
Family
+7
11
4
By Percent Increase
Person
Division
Improvement
2025
2024
● Mandy🥇
Friends
+1000.0%
11
1
● Dad🥈
Family
+240.0%
68
20
● Sarah R🥉
Friends
+200.0%
30
10
● Noah
Family
+175.0%
11
4
● Jon C
Friends
+125.0%
9
4
Most Valuable
Awarded to the person with the highest value finds.
Person
Division
Amount
Count
● Dominica🥇
Friends
21.39 USD
30
● Tiffany A🥈
Friends
10.19 USD
11
● Leah TK🥉
Friends
7.55 USD
22
● Zach
Family
7.38 USD
238
● Sarah R
Friends
6.38 USD
30
International They/Them of Mystery
Awarded to the person who found the most non-USD items. The cool thing about this award is that it usually correlates with international travel, it doesn't always! I've found Euros and Pesos here in San Francisco.
Person
Division
Total∑
Currency$
Count#
Amount
● Natalia OM🥇
Friends
4
CAD
2
1.10 CAD
EUR
2
1.05 EUR
● Zach🥈
Family
3
EUR
3
0.22 EUR
● Amanda F🥉
Friends
2
CAD
1
0.25 CAD
HUF
1
0.20 HUF
● Dominica
Friends
2
AUD
1
0.20 AUD
EUR
1
0.01 EUR
● Kerianne B
Friends
1
NZD
1
0.01 NZD
● Jon C
Friends
1
MXP
1
5.00 MXP
Additional All-Time Data
Frequencies Over Time (by quarter of a year)
In early November 2025, the US Treasury stopped distributing pennies. I added this chart that shows the frequency of the top few coins and bills found over time, wondering if we would be able to see an effect from the discontinuation of the penny. The chart is bucketed quarterly, and it's been less than a full quarter since the end, so it's a little hard to say. Next year this might be a much more interesting chart!
All-Time Counts
Person
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
Total
● Zach
263
146
181
275
258
191
193
213
241
1,961
● Dad
114
27
27
38
55
69
46
20
68
464
● Mom
2
8
11
5
17
17
9
119
112
300
● Noah
6
7
14
13
17
13
20
4
11
105
Methodology
We take pictures of coins or bills we find on the ground (either in situ or once they've been picked up). For family members, we have a group text chat where we sent pictures and notes. Friends send me their pictures and notes individually (text messages, Instagram DMs, Snapchats). Almost all change is fair game, but we don't allow deliberately left change: coins left in fountains, "leave a penny take a penny" bowls.
Each year, I manually scroll through our family's 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). For friends, I enter them in the spreadsheet as soon as they send them to me, because I don't want to forget where sent it.