I’m a two-bit Midas!
I hate, hate, hate having coins jingling around in my pocket, so I’ve been dumping all my change in piles at home and at work. On Thursday, I collected it all in a Gatorade bottle and dumped it — slightly sticky — into a nearby CoinStar machine. I asked for estimates before I left. Guesses ranged from $30.00 (Zachary Thacher) to $268.00 (a [My employer] creative director on the elevator.) The count turned out to be:

• 6 golden dollars from the post office stamp machine,
  
• 289 quarters,
  
• 172 dimes,
  
• 130 nickels, and
  
• 175 pennies, for a total of
  
• ——
  
• $103.70, of which I got about $94.00, since CoinStar takes a cut.
  

The closest guesser was Kate (at $92.00), but she says she has an advantage because she’s used to dealing with the piles of coins I leave around. Hey, big spender!