Finding Coins in the Street

[Mrs Zeta]

An urban myth is that if you find a coin in the street and you pick it up, you will then notice that you frequently find more coins as if by magic. I tried this once, and although I could hardly find any coins before, after I picked up a small coin I continued finding coins of all denominations almost on a daily basis. It has now been 3 months and this continues.

 

What is the basis of this? There are no people walking in front of me deliberating throwing coins in order for me to find them. It is not just coincidence.

 

One explanation is that after the first coin, the finder becomes more aware or focused and subconsiously scans the pavement for coins. He/she becomes more alert in this respect, almost in a state of 'flow' as described by Czikszentmihalyi (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology).

 

Another explanation is that the finder believes that he finds coins more frequently, but statistically it is still the same amount of coins as previously, only that the person has not noticed them or bothered to bend and pick them up.

 

Any other ideas?

[Mr Skeptic]

Yeah, I find a lot of coins. If you start looking for coins you will find more of them. If you practice something, you get better at it. And I do suspect your subconscious also helps out, without it you wouldn't be able to notice anything important with all the flood of data reaching your senses.

[tomgwyther]

The same is true of archaeological finds. I found a pristine stone age axe head when I was about 15. Whenever I walk around the country side, especially a ploughed field; it's not uncommon for me to find an arrow-head, skinning knife or other similar knapped/worked stone.

Edited January 16, 2011 by tomgwyther

[PhDwannabe]

One explanation is that after the first coin, the finder becomes more aware or focused and subconsiously scans the pavement for coins. He/she becomes more alert in this respect, almost in a state of 'flow' as described by Czikszentmihalyi (see: http://en.wikipedia....low_(psychology).

 

Eeeehhh, not the greatest explanation. From the way Flow is proffered to work, you really need a more cognitively (or, sometimes, physically) demanding task and a higher frequency of reinforcement. Flow is often mistaken for states of mildly diminished awareness like "highway hypnosis," and I think that's the case here.

 

Perhaps the street you live on has thousands of coins on it and it takes great powers of concentration and mental effort to find them. Perhaps the street is also roaming with heavily armed clowns who demand that you answer riddles and perform tricks in order to get at their precious coins. Then, umm, maybe it's Flow.

 

 

Another explanation is that the finder believes that he finds coins more frequently, but statistically it is still the same amount of coins as previously

We're misled by heuristics like these all the time. Our perceptions and memories are quite unreliable. This could very well be operating here.

 

 

If you start looking for coins you will find more of them. If you practice something, you get better at it.

Awww mannnn, Occam's Razor's no fun. What about armed clowns?

[ewmon]

I bought another car recently and then began noticing that a lot of people drive that kind of car. Once I saw a woman with the tips of her fingernails painted white, I noticed that lots of women do. One day on my way to work, I saw a flock of turkeys in a parking lot, so now I always look to see if the flock is there again (but have not had a repeat sighting). Yeah, what we know affects our perceptions.

[Fadl]

If we are looking for something we sometimes even see it when its not even there. For instance you lost your car keys, and while looking for them every now and then you see them lying somewhere just to find out it was something else.

I think the basis ties to this somehow, in that on a subconscious level we start fixating on it.

[Mrs Zeta]

Eeeehhh, not the greatest explanation. From the way Flow is proffered to work, you really need a more cognitively (or, sometimes, physically) demanding task and a higher frequency of reinforcement. Flow is often mistaken for states of mildly diminished awareness like "highway hypnosis," and I think that's the case here.

 

Perhaps the street you live on has thousands of coins on it and it takes great powers of concentration and mental effort to find them. Perhaps the street is also roaming with heavily armed clowns who demand that you answer riddles and perform tricks in order to get at their precious coins. Then, umm, maybe it's Flow.

 

 

Flow is, as you said, based on a demanding task, frequent reinforcement and a highten awareness. This is what happens when I walk the streets. This is out habit, because my two dogs eat anything they can find while walking with me, so I constantly scan the pavements to prevent them from eating any small bones etc. I didn't think that your explanation about clowns etc was particularly great either.

 

Just an update, since I started this post I begun to also find banknotes! Not every day, but maybe once a week. Last time I found a banknote before this was in 1986.

See if you can explain this!

[CaptainPanic]

Flow is, as you said, based on a demanding task, frequent reinforcement and a highten awareness. This is what happens when I walk the streets. This is out habit, because my two dogs eat anything they can find while walking with me, so I constantly scan the pavements to prevent them from eating any small bones etc. I didn't think that your explanation about clowns etc was particularly great either.

 

Just an update, since I started this post I begun to also find banknotes! Not every day, but maybe once a week. Last time I found a banknote before this was in 1986.

See if you can explain this!

If you're trained to look for coins, you might miss the bus that races towards you at 80 km/h.

All the good coin-finders therefore have gone extinct... which might explain why you keep finding them: You're a mutation who is much better at it than the average person.

 

This is a joke.

 

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On a more serious note - a banknote or a coin is something that should catch everyone's attention if it is in plain sight. People do look where they're going (the pavement might be uneven, so everybody looks down sometimes). Everything that it not in your or anyone else's direct path is probably unnoticed by most people. But if you start looking in such places, then I don't understand why it took you so long to start finding notes.

 

The higher the frequency or value of your findings, the higher the chance that someone else wants you to find money.

 

Finally, I spot the low value coins quite often too: 5 cent especially is too worthless for many people to pick up...

People think it's dirty to pick up money. Maybe the Brittish have finally gone so paranoid that they stopped picking up money?