Sunday, May 22, 2005

Today I found $1.18. . .1 nickel, 6 dimes, 1 quarter, and 28 pennies (the apocryphal change cycle). I also found a 9 pesos and a 10 cent piece from Singapore. Sadly, the foreign coinage will not count towards the daily totals.

Early this morning I set out for some chores and did some change finding. A Starbucks drive-thru gave me my first find of the day in the form of 16 cents (one dime & six pennies). Morning finds were also recorded at a Taco-Bell drive-thru where I found 12 cents (one dime & two pennies), a Chinese restaurant drive-thru were I found a penny, a Boston Market drive-thru where I found 13 cents (one dime & three pennies), and a Kroger where I found 12 cents (one dime & two pennies). The finds at Kroger were in three locations; the dime was found in a change sorting machine, the penultimate penny was on the ground by a self checkout line, and the final penny was on the ground by a regular check out line.

In the afternoon I had to go to the grocery store and I found a penny in the parking lot and another penny on the ground by a checkout line. Driving to meet Bailey for lunch I checked in at a Sonic and found five cents (all pennies) and a Starbucks drive-thru where I found 17 cents (one dime, one nickel, and two cents).

Today was oppressively hot in Houston (the thermometer on my porch, which is in the shad, read 105 degrees at 4:30 in the afternoon). I intended to go straight home after lunch, but change was calling. I stopped at another Kroger and found two cents, one penny in the parking lot and one in a change sorting machine. The penny in the change sorting machine was a 1941 Wheat Penny. I also checked a McDonalds drive-thru where I had my big find of the day, 38 cents (one quarter, one dime, and three pennies).

The coin sorting machine at Kroger where I found the Wheat Penny was also where I found my foreign coins. They came in the form of a five peso coin, a two peso coin (there were two of them), and a 10 cent coin from Singapore. At current exchange rates these coins are valued at 88 cents (82 cents for the Pesos & six cents for the Singapore coin), but sadly will not count towards my daily totals. Nevertheless, they have already been deposited into my “Not Change Cup,” where they will mingle with other windfalls that have been discovered during the Race of the Century.

Totals for the day: $1.18
Race Totals: $63.93