December 2009 & January 2009 was a particularly bad snow year in the Greater Vancouver Area of British Columbia, Canada. As the snow was melting, I found quite a bit of loose change as I went about my business around town. If I recall correctly, I found between $12.00 – $18.00. I mentioned this to a friend and she forwarded me an article about a family that has kept track of how many ‘lucky pennies’ they’ve found over the course of a few years.1 I was intrigued and started (on January 19, 2009) recording my ‘lucky penny’ finds to see if I could reproduce their success. Each time I make a new $5.00 landmark, I make a quick tweet about it (I’m @MarcusBarnes on Twitter). Finding lucky pennies as I’m walking around has turned into a bit of a hobby and I’ve become interested in taking up metal detecting as a result. While researching metal detecting, I came across Chris Turner of The Ring Finders – “an online directory of metal detector specialists that will help people find their lost jewelry at beaches, parks, lakes and yards around the world.”2
In the following YouTube video, Chris describes the ‘heat-hole’ phenomenon that helps explain why I was finding so much loose change as the snow began to melt at the beginning of January 2009:
As I claimed in the title to this post, for treasure hunters, change hunters, and other like-minded folks, the real fun begins when the snow starts to melt 
I’ve made a previous post about Chris Turner and his Vancouver-based metal detecting service here on marcusebarnes.com — you may also want to check out Chris’ YouTube Channel: TurnersTreasureTeam for other cool videos related to his metal detecting services.
QUESTION: What’s the most interesting coin you’ve ever picked up while going about your daily errands, etc.?
References
- “Picking up loose change makes sense” interview by Sally Herships http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/02/change_hunters/ Accessed December 26, 2009
- About Ring Finders http://theringfinders.com/about/ Accessed December 26, 2009
Possibly Related Posts:
