Twitterings and Uninformed Opinions

Here is the Money Found on the Ground Annual Update.





This year's total is £62.29 which is an increase on last year. Activity has been comparable with last year.

MFOG 2023 Annual Comparison





There were three remarkable finding events this year. I found a £20 near Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh, £10 at the Barras and £10 on Buchanan Street. There were 409 coins found in total which is a slight decrease on last year.




Five pound coins have been found which is a decrease on last year and a rate of less than one every two months. Three 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 40c Euro and 6c US which is a decrease on last year. Still indicative of very depressed tourist activity

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and walked the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. This year I have been walking to the office most days of the week. In fact I cover 6-7miles everyday. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? This year has been very unusual in that there have been three large finds. This has not happened to this extent before. There is probably no sense in drawing any comparisons. But I will say that the banks have been putting increased pressure on businesses to take contactless payments and to not accept cash payments. People are generally using cash less.

Additional bonus analysis. The 20p analysis shows a general slight upward trend, increasing on last year.

MFOG 2023 20p Analysis

Here is the Money Found on the Ground Annual Update.



This year's total is £18.88 which is an increase on last year. This may be slightly unexpected due to lockdown at the start of the year but we did have a very active Summer and Autumn.



There were no remarkable coin finding events this year. There were 344 coins found in total which is an increase on last year, surprisingly.



Five pound coins have been found which is an increase on last year and a rate just over one every 3 months. Two 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 26c Euro and 8c US which is a decrease on last year, but with no tourists in the country, not surprising.

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and walked the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. This year I have been walking to the office most days of the week. In fact I cover 6-7miles everyday. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week or in this year, even every month.

What can we conclude? This year has been very unusual although quite similar to last year. There is probably no sense in drawing any comparisons. But I will say that the banks have been putting increased pressure on businesses to take contactless payments and to not accept cash payments despite there being no real evidence that coronavirus survives on coins.

Additional bonus analysis. The 20p analysis shows a general slight upward trend, but and an increase on last year.

Here is the money found on the ground annual update.


MFOG annual update

This year's total is £18.93 which is a slight increase on last year. Previous totals are below.

Money Found on the Ground Annual Comparison


There were no remarkable events this year. There were 265 coins found in total which is an increase on last year.

Coins found by value - Matthews Analysis



Seven pound coins have been found which is an increase on last year and a rate one every 2 months. Two 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 72c Euro and 17c US which is an increase on last year.

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and now walk the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? After a plateau over the last five years there has been a slight increase. So many more places have introduced card payments and so many more now have contactless paying, notably Greggs and all the supermarkets even local convenience stores and market stalls. People just don't need to carry so much cash on them and so there's less opportunity for droppage.

Additional bonus analysis. It's been my feeling that I am finding more 20p pieces than before. So I have looked at past data and I think there is a definite trend upwards in the % of 20p pieces as a function of the total number of coins, but a decrease this year on previous years. No idea what this means though. I have noticed though that a 20p piece often resembles a blob of chewing gum and so is easily overlooked. Also 20p pieces are no longer shiney and so often don't look valuable.


20p Analysis

Here is the money found on the ground annual update.



This year's total is £18.27 which is a decrease on last year. Previous totals are below.



There were no remarkable events this year. There were 283 coins found in total which is an increase on last year.

Five pound coins have been found which is a decrease on last year and a rate of less than one every 2 months. Two 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 7c Euro and 2c US which is also a decrease on last year.

The main coin finding area is the station. In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied the daily journey in 2017 is exactly comparable to the journey from 2011 to 2016. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? After a plateau over the last three years there has once again been a decrease. So many more places have introduced card payments and so many more now have contactless paying, notably Greggs and all the supermarkets, people just don't need to carry so much cash on them and so there's less opportunity for droppage.

Additional bonus analysis. It's been my feeling that I am finding more 20p pieces than before. So I have looked at past data and I think there is a definite trend upwards in the % of 20p pieces as a function of the total number of coins. No idea what this means though. I have noticed though that a 20p piece often resembles a blob of chewing gum and so is easily overlooked. Also 20p pieces are no longer shiney and so often don't look valuable.

Here is the money found on the ground annual update.



This year's total is £27.06 which is a slight increase on last year. Previous totals are below.







There was one remarkable event of a fiver in February. Without this event the MFOG total would have been an all time low. There were 314 coins found in total which is a slight decrease on last year.

Only 7 pound coins have been found which, despite being a slight increase on last year is still only one every two months. No £2 coins were found this year and only 2 50p pieces. Foreign coins amounted to 13c Euro and 1c US which is also a decrease on last year.

Main coin finding areas are still stations, bus stops and outside shops. One point is that while in previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied the daily journey in 2015 is exactly comparable to the journey from 2011 to 2014. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every single day and this year for the first time it has also been the case than I no longer find something every week. There was one week in May when zero coins were found in the whole week.

What can we conclude? Now that Gregg's has introduced card payments and so many places now have contactless paying, people just don't need to carry so much cash on them and so there's less opportunity for droppage.

Here is the Money Found on Ground Annual Update.



This year's total is £39.13. This is a decrease on last years all time high score. Previous totals have been as follows.

2008 42.45
2009 23.33
2010 36.62
2011 42.69
2012 46.29
2013 39.13

The was one remarkable event find of a five pound note.
There have been 489 coins found in total, a marked decrease on last year. Eleven £1 coins were found. This is slightly less than one a month which is a decrease on previous years, when it was slightly more than one a month. No £2 coins were found this year and 50p coins remain the second least frequent at only 2 per year.
Foreign coins amount to 98c Euro and 43c US. This is an increase on last year.



Main coin finding areas are still stations, bus stops and outside shops, although since Pog started High School this has also been a frequent finding location. One point is that while in previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied the daily journey in 2013 is exactly comparable to the journey in 2011 and 2012. There was a relatively low point in October, when due to injury, I couldn't bend over and had to leave a number of coins on the ground.

What can we conclude? If we can interpret anything about the state of the economy from money found on the ground it would appear that Glasgow has entered a double dip recession and people are still on an austerity drive. One hypothesis could be that the increased number of sunny days in 2013, especially during the Summer, have lead to an decrease in MFOG as generally there is more money left on rainy days than dry sunny days.

Here is the Money Found on Ground Annual Update



This year's total is £42.69. This is the highest total ever. Previous totals have been as follows

2008 42.45
2009 23.33
2010 36.62
2011 42.69

Remarkable events were the first ever finding of a two pound coin. And two five pound notes.
There were 471 coins found of which 11 of these were pound coins. There were also 6 50p coins found which is unusual as these are the second rarest next to £2 coins.
There has also been a total of 39 Euro cents and 8 US cents found.

The full coin breakdown is as follows:-



Main coin finding areas are still stations, bus stops and outside shops. The school playground has been fertile ground this year as has the climbing centre lockers.

What can we conclude? It would seem that despite a difficult economic climate Glasgow people still drop and leave a large amount of money on the streets. This increases when it's dark and raining and when drink is taken. Whilst in other cities this year such as London, Naples and Rome no coins were found at all. This may be a Glaswegian phenomenon.