Money can't buy you happiness

[ewx]

You're cycling¹ along and you spot a coin or note on the ground. Presumably whether you stop to pick it up depends on its value, so how much does it have to be before it's worth stopping, dismounting, picking up, remounting, and picking your speed back up?

[Poll #1396261]

¹ If you don't cycle, assume some other means of transport that's comparably inconvenient to interrupt.

Comments

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

Spotting coins on the ground whilst cycling along (as opposed to stopped) seems pretty unlikely to me. Even notes might well be missed or mistaken for rubbish.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Well, I spotted a 1p this morning (and didn't stop) which was what inspired the poll...

[aendr.livejournal.com]

I'd pick up a 1p coin if it were shiny; 1/2 and 3p because of their rarity.

On the other hand I fall off exercise bikes, so it's very unlikely I'd be on a bike outdoors and I can't think of any similar transport I use that would have a similar inconvenience to interrupt.

I did actually find 70 quid discarded by the side of the pavement once (in a very rich suburb of nodnoL). Nobody claimed it, so I got to keep itdonate it to a charity of my choice.

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

I do it all the time.

This may be because my bike has quite thin wheels which are prone to pinch punctures whenever they get bumped, so I'm perpetually scanning for the smoothest parts of the road.

[gerald_duck]

Many years ago I saw someone consider this question for Bill Gates, and decide it wasn't worth his time to stop and pick up $100,000 left lying in the street.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking of. In fact, some of the sources of income probably work just as well whether he's walking along or picking up a coin. (Although I guess, even the things he gets money for actually doing may be worth a lot.)

The example that was told to me was about Michael Jordan, and describing how much (through sponsorship deals, etc) he'd earn even while doing something else, and that he'd earn £20* while sitting in a £8 cinema, etc, etc. And ended with "...and if he saved up everything he earned for 20,000* years, he'd have as much money as Bill Gates".

* Not actual numbers, made up for illustration purposes.

[megamole.livejournal.com]

3p coin?

[tienelle.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd recognize a £50 note if I saw it. Half penny coins, though, are awesome.

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

I'd stop for a 3p coin in the unlikely case that I recognised it as such, from sheer curiosity! But I have the policy that found money has to be donated to charity, which would act as a disincentive to bother to stop in this case.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

I tend to be nervous about picking up money that isn't mine off the ground; what if the owner comes looking for it?

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Me too, only guilty rather than nervous.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Has there ever been a 3p coin?

(I think I've seen 3d coins in old piggy banks)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Not as far as I know, so if you see one its value is related to curiosity and rarity rather than ability to spend it l-)

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

<fx> ewx being locked up for knowingly handling counterfeit currency </fx>

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I'd have thought a counterfeit would have to be a counterfeit of real coin, not of an entirely hypothetical one...

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

You'd have thought so, but I think people have been done before now for attempting to pass crudely produced $1,000,000 bank notes.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, if you actually try to fool someone into accepting it then some kind of sanction might reasonably be expected. I don't think I'd be that stupid though l-)

[pfy.livejournal.com]

And some people have the exact opposite problem (http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/96q1/2bill.html).

[bjh21.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Section 16 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 (http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?ActiveTextDocId=1267157) only makes it an offence to possess a counterfeit of a "protected coin", which is basically only those customarily used as money[1]. I don't think a non-existent coin could qualify.

[1] Some gold bullion coins and Euro coins are also protected, but obviously irrelevant here.

[bjh21.livejournal.com]

Yes (http://www.royalmint.com/Corporate/facts/Maundy.aspx).

By my reckoning, there have been about 40,000 minted, but I suspect they're not often found in the street.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

I think I have a couple of 3d. And possibly a silver thruppenny bit.

[mair_in_grenderich]

Sooo depends but usually by the time I realise I've cycled past something, I'd have to stop, and go back, and put my bike down, and ...

So, if I'm out for an afternoon ride and it's a quiet road, maybe. If I'm rushing to a meeting down a busy road, no. But if I *walked* past it, always.

I always stop for bungee cords, too.

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Well, except for the bungee cords :) If I'm walking, I'll pick up almost any coin, and a few other things if I'm in the mood.

[angoel.livejournal.com]

I'd pick them all up under certain circumstances, I'd pick none of them up under others. At the moment I'm feeling quixotic and inclined to pick them up.

[gareth-rees.livejournal.com]

I have recently stopped and picked up a roll of birthday wrapping paper (value approx. £1) and a cycle bungee cord (value approx. £3).

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Mair mentioned bungee cords too. Do you see many? I should keep an eye out, never know when one might come in handy.

[mair_in_grenderich]

I think I pick them up at a similar rate to losing or destroying them, but they all have squashed ends.

[gareth-rees.livejournal.com]

Only the one so far, on High Street, Barrington.

[gareth-rees.livejournal.com]

Saw another one this morning, on Kings Hedges Road, but it was too damaged to be worth picking up.

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

You've generated some lovely statistics there! The numbers for each denomination increase as the amount goes up, as expected - but for the otherwise unattested 1/2p and 3p coins you have unusually high numbers because of the numismatists of your f'list, I assume :)

I wonder why more people would pick up a 1p coin than a 2p coin though...

[mair_in_grenderich]

see a penny, pick it up...

[pne.livejournal.com]

...and all day long you'll have a penny...

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

Aha, good explanation!

[armb.livejournal.com]

If it was shiny enough to spot while cycling, I'd probably pick it up whatever it was....

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't this have been a "pick one" thang, for the threshold?

I bleeve the 1/2p is no longer legal currency.

[lnr]

Don't want it for legal currency, want it for curiosity/nostalgia value: I have a piggy bank full of coins and notes you can't spend any more in UK, French and Greek currencies, if not more.

And a threshold wouldn't have worked for me, since I'd pick the 1/2p and then probably nothing til about 50p-£2 depending on traffic.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

The calculation isn't just a comparison of your hourly rate at work (which, after tax, works out at about a penny per second); it's a question of the monetary value that you place on your leisure time.

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

And entertainment value.

[gjm11.livejournal.com]

I answered the questions as if they had the form "suppose you knew that if you didn't pick the money up it would instantly be destroyed, so that neither the original owner nor any other passer-by could get it; then ...". In reality, I'd leave it unless there seemed any point in taking it to the police.