2¢ About The Penny Wall of Fame
(or Why We Frickin' LOVE Our Fellow Penny Finders)
Check Out Our Newest InducteesBehold...The PENNY PALACE!! Tina & Doc's Penny Palace
Have you ever seen such a beautiful home?! You might say yes...but if so, you CLEARLY don't know the story behind The Penny Palace!
I met Tina through our shared love of pennies when I found her blog about having a TON of consecutive days of penny finding. I don't remember what the count was when I met her...but in the building of this house, her "Penny Angels" gave her signs & encouragement for 1,393 straight days. How phenomenal is THAT?! She chronicled her adventures (and sometimes MISadventures!!) every...single...day! Including day #783, when we met face-to-face for the first time & went penny finding in Las Vegas together! The result of Tina's hope, faith, belief in something bigger, and above all else, willingness to PLAY with her Penny Angles, was an unbelievable journey guided by penny finds & sharing the joy that came to an end with the completion of this incredible home. Actually...it may have been the end of part of the journey. But I have a feeling there is a whole new journey ahead that includes some magical times in the Penny Palace. Not just for Tina...but for all who enter. Maybe there will even be a joint-penny-venture someday that we will do there together. Certainly THAT would be one for the wall of fame! Thanks for your continued inspiration, Tina. You will ALWAYS be wall-of-fame in our book...especially when you send us pictures of yourself READING the book (see below). Too awesome! 
Tina reading her copy of Penny Perspectives by the fire in the grand room of The Penny Palace. How could it get any better than that?!
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Check out YOUR Penny Standing!!Find out where you rank against your fellow penny finders & uber-generous donators this year or in years past:
Click here to see the 2014 Results Click here to see the 2013 Results Click here to see the 2012 Results Click here to see the 2011 Results Click here to see the 2010 Results Click here to see the 2009 Results Click here to see the 2008 Results Click here to see the ORIGINAL Crazy Spreadsheet (2007) |
Other Recent Penny Wall of Fame Additions:
Penny Finding Is Cool...LITERALLY!!
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Meet the Stein-girls & the Kuhl-girls...who were all COOL-girls after a 7-hour stretch of penny finding known as the PPD--Penny Progressive Dinner--landed them smack dab in the middle of an Ice Lounge by night's end.
Always looking for an excuse to hang out, Leslie & Karina hatched a plan to penny-find Vegas style by visiting a series of casinos in search of abandoned money...and some tasty treats along the way!! Not only did they find a ton-o-money & eat good food...but they laughed their butts off & had a rockin' good time!!
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Darlene, Jane, Karina, JJ, & Leslie in their Minus5 issued Parkas after exiting the Ice Lounge (where they found a nickel!).
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By the end of the night they'd visited three major casinos, perused The Bellagio flower display, had hand treatments at LUSH cosmetics, spotted Elvis, found Waldo, ate chicken fritters out of a shoe, played foosball with Gene Simons on the field & Barbara Bush in the goal, had drinks in an ice lounge, AND scored $11.33 for The Penny Project. Now, if that's not a Wall-o-Fame night, we don't know what is!!
Biggest. Find. EVER!
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It's not every day that you find money on the ground (of course once you're addicted like we are it does happen a lot more often!).
We find that even finding a penny is exciting (it is, after all, legal tender!). Silver change gets the heart racing a little faster than normal. But paper money?! Oh...paper money is cause for a happy dance!! Just ask any of the 29 Penny Project supporters that found paper money in the first five years of our little experiment. It's a thrill!! So imagine my excitement when I had the following text exchange with my dad: Dad: "What's the biggest find in Penny Project history?" Leslie: "Depends if you mean value or # of coins." Dad: "Both." Leslie: "Well, most coins found at one time is over 100 pennies. There was a 13-quarter find once. And then there was the time Illeny found $130." Dad: "Paltry." Leslie: "WHAT?!" |
Yes, he's my dad. And yes, he's been on the Penny Wall of Fame before. But how can we deny that finding $250 in one shot is worth a post. That's 12 $20-bills & a $10...it's practically a car payment, folks!! So here it is...a picture of my dad, Jerry, with the Penny Project's biggest find to date. Way to go, Dad!!
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Turns out my dad had been sitting on a super-duper, ridiculously huge find for three weeks because he wanted to see if anyone was going to step forward and claim what he'd found. But when three weeks passed & no one claimed the money, he finally got to tell me that he'd found 12 $20-bills & one $10-bill neatly paper-clipped together just sitting on the ground outside of the courthouse where he worked. BAM! $250...all at once! Talk about a happy dance!!
Needless to say, this find skyrocketed my dad to the top of the penny finding ranks for the entirety of 2011, much to the chagrin of the biggest penny finding competitors who live the mantra, "Top 3's the place to be!" So here it is, Dad...your long overdue 2nd entry into the Penny Wall of Fame! Thanks for your eagle eye AND your willingness to hand over the found cash to The Penny Project...we salute you on both counts!!
Needless to say, this find skyrocketed my dad to the top of the penny finding ranks for the entirety of 2011, much to the chagrin of the biggest penny finding competitors who live the mantra, "Top 3's the place to be!" So here it is, Dad...your long overdue 2nd entry into the Penny Wall of Fame! Thanks for your eagle eye AND your willingness to hand over the found cash to The Penny Project...we salute you on both counts!!
Like Father, Like Son!!
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ACTUALLY...in this case it's "Like son, like father" since Parker was the first of the pair to find & report a DOLLAR!! But not too long after that I got a text with a picture of Dear ol' Dad finding a dollar too. Don't you want to be part of this family?!
For not one but TWO dollar finds in less than a month, the Bullard Family once again lands on The Penny Wall of Fame! And the best part is I'll be visiting live & in person to collect their massive penny/dollar stash in just a few weeks. Who knows what they'll find between now & then! Keep up the good work, Bullards...you guys are rockin' the 2011 penny totals!! |
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One Man's Trash Is Another Woman's 9-cent Super-Find!!
'I won't forget my pennies! I won't forget my pennies!'
Meet Myma. Well...ok, Myma's hand!!
I couldn't resist taking this picture after an encounter I had with Myma at the First Global Co-Active Summit, a gathering of coaches & leaders ready to bring change to the world. And you know how much I love ¢hange...
On the 2nd day of the summit, I wore one of my newly minted Penny Project t-shirts. Sometimes these shirts (or the business cards that match) spark conversations with folks about memorable penny finding experiences they've had.
It turns out that Myma had come to the summit straight from some vacation time in Florida. As she was cleaning up the condo & getting ready to depart for the summit, she made one last run to the garbage area to throw away the last of the vacation trash.
There, in plain sight, were 9 pennies that had clearly been abandoned & stepped over several times as others had dumped their trash in the garbage room that day. This in & of itself wasn't such a strange occurrence. Nor was the fact that Myma had picked up the pennies.
What was odd & fun & a little synchronistic was that she'd stashed the pennies in her purse and was still carrying them around. She said she didn't even know why!! But since she still had them (and we were standing there talking about pennies) she said she'd bring them down from her room and give them to me the next time I saw her.
Turns out that when I ran into her again she'd forgotten the pennies...but she wasn't going to forget again, hence the reminder on her hand! Just couldn't pass up that photo!! And the reminder worked!! Myma proudly handed off her 9-cent find that night at the dessert & dance party marking the last night of the summit.
These little moments are so much fun and always remind me of the magic that's out in the world. Who knows why some people can't see the value in pennies while others so happily pick them up. And in what world does a woman carry around 9 found pennies in a separate place from the rest of her money just before having a conversation with an obsessive-compulsive penny picker-upper?! Only this world!
And so here's THREE CHEERS FOR MYMA!! Thanks for recognizing the value of those 9 pennies...even if they were in the garbage room! You're forever on our spreadsheet with much love for donating your find!!
I couldn't resist taking this picture after an encounter I had with Myma at the First Global Co-Active Summit, a gathering of coaches & leaders ready to bring change to the world. And you know how much I love ¢hange...
On the 2nd day of the summit, I wore one of my newly minted Penny Project t-shirts. Sometimes these shirts (or the business cards that match) spark conversations with folks about memorable penny finding experiences they've had.
It turns out that Myma had come to the summit straight from some vacation time in Florida. As she was cleaning up the condo & getting ready to depart for the summit, she made one last run to the garbage area to throw away the last of the vacation trash.
There, in plain sight, were 9 pennies that had clearly been abandoned & stepped over several times as others had dumped their trash in the garbage room that day. This in & of itself wasn't such a strange occurrence. Nor was the fact that Myma had picked up the pennies.
What was odd & fun & a little synchronistic was that she'd stashed the pennies in her purse and was still carrying them around. She said she didn't even know why!! But since she still had them (and we were standing there talking about pennies) she said she'd bring them down from her room and give them to me the next time I saw her.
Turns out that when I ran into her again she'd forgotten the pennies...but she wasn't going to forget again, hence the reminder on her hand! Just couldn't pass up that photo!! And the reminder worked!! Myma proudly handed off her 9-cent find that night at the dessert & dance party marking the last night of the summit.
These little moments are so much fun and always remind me of the magic that's out in the world. Who knows why some people can't see the value in pennies while others so happily pick them up. And in what world does a woman carry around 9 found pennies in a separate place from the rest of her money just before having a conversation with an obsessive-compulsive penny picker-upper?! Only this world!
And so here's THREE CHEERS FOR MYMA!! Thanks for recognizing the value of those 9 pennies...even if they were in the garbage room! You're forever on our spreadsheet with much love for donating your find!!
Over Hill, Over Dale...A Penny!!
Look, a penny!! Jerry spotted it, Donna photographed it.
Out on a hike with a fellow penny picker-upper (good thing...because who else would hold the camera?!), Penny Finder Jerry Stein (also known as my dad!!) spotted a dusty little coin on their path. It wasn't shiny or easy to spot...in fact, it blended right into the dirt. But Jerry spotted it nonetheless! Why, you may ask...well, it's because he adopted the Rainman-like phrase I repeat over & over again since I began penny finding, "PERFECT CIRCLES DON'T OCCUR IN NATURE!" (Dorky, yes. But also...TRUE!) And so he spotted the tiny circle & BAM...a penny!
Nepotism is a surefire way to make the penny wall. Good going, Dad!
Nepotism is a surefire way to make the penny wall. Good going, Dad!
Snow Won't Stop Her Penny Finding! Ellie's snowy find, Jan 2011
Meet Ellie. She's a double inductee! First she sent word that she'd found a half dollar. A HALF FREAKIN' DOLLAR!!! That is the first one in 4+ years of penny finding. Good eye, Ellie!! Then, as if the half dollar wasn't magic enough, Ellie sent us this picture of the $7 she found on the snowy sidewalks of Boston. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will slow down this dedicated penny finder. Thanks, Ellie!!
Penny Finding From Fancy to Freaky!
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It's a "Small Change" World After All with The Kuhl-Bull Clan
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