Most money you've found on the side of the road?
 

Yesterday, as I was riding by a bus stop at the Golden Gate Bridge, I looked down and saw some money on the ground. I stopped and picked up 2 $20. I looked around, waved it at a couple of guys sitting there, who smiled and waved back. No one else was around, so I stuck it in my handlebar bag and rode off. It will pay for lunch for me and my wife today. This is, by far, the most I've found while out riding.

What is the most amount of money you've found while riding?

We once found three $20 bills lying in the middle of the street in Buelton, CA on our way down the coast to Santa Barbara. Another time we found a total of about $25 in bills of various denominations along a few miles of road in the Big Sur area.

I found a wallet with more than $1000 plus quite a lot in British pounds, airline tickets, immigration receipts on the road climbing from Yosemite Valley to Tioga Road. It was about 1/2 mile from the filling station at Crane Flats. I stopped at the ranger station there and had them put out an APB. They found the woman who had spent the night at a motel near El Portal. I suspected that she had filled her car up and had left her wallet on the roof. That's why it was 1/2 mile from the station. Probably only a cyclist would have seen it in the woods by the roadway. She was from Scotland. We stayed in touch for a couple of years.

I have always been lucky and good at finding stuff. I forget the exact amount but once quite a few years ago (20+) I found a little over $200 in small bills in an un-addressed envelope. That was while riding, but not on tour. A few years ago while out running I found two $100 bills in the grass near a pay phone that I am told is frequented by drug dealers. A few weeks ago I found a $50 bill on the ground while walking. Over the years I have found smaller amounts of folding money probably scores of times. I have also found many pocketbooks and wallets with cash and credit cards, but I returned all of those to their rightful owners.

I have also found tons of other good stuff over the years, especially when canoeing or kayaking.

I also found three $20 bills on Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles. Initially I just spotted one bill and stopped to pick it up, then I saw another, and another.

I was riding a bike path at a pretty good clip and, as I began to approach a little wooden bridge, I caught a glimpse of a $10 bill that appeared to have lodged itself in one of the planks. I jammed on the brakes, came to a complete stop, and reached down to grab the bill. Just as my finger brushed the crisp, green corner, the bill was snapped up into the bridge and I suddenly heard a bunch of kids below me, laughing hysterically. I soon joined them in their laughter and rode off. Pretty funny trick that kept me smiling all day.

I have never been lucky enough to find any money... I guess if I collected all the soda and beer cans ($0.10 in MI) on the sides of the roads I would have enough money to pay for a bottle of water and maybe a candy bar.

$200 in freshly folded $20's outside the Seattle REI after biking there. Nobody but my wife and me visible outside the store. I notified the REI Information person and left a phone number. Waited several days, then we had a lovely free dinner out.

Leaving work on my bike commute one day I found a $5 bill. Still have it.

Hope to find more someday :)

Years ago I spotted some cash outside a 7-11 while riding with a friend. I yelled "look" he looked, I stopped, he didn't and ran into me. No damage and I got a couple of bucks out of it.

This past winter I found $70 riding about a block from my house.

The most on a tour was a $20. Did find and return a wallet with over $550 while commuting, a few months ago, it made my day.

.

$10. But it was my own that had blown out of my pocket.

Spotted some cash from the road in a parking lot of a taco bell in Huntington Beach, CA. Picked it up and found it was $60 (3x20 seems to be a common find here for some reason). I went inside the Taco Bell and asked rather loudly if anyone had lost any money, everyone just looked at me like I was crazy...then it went in my pocket.

$20.00 in a bag on a lonely road, no sign of anyone about, and the bag looked to have some weathering on it. I still wonder about that one.

i know a guy who found £7000 on a cycle one day he could not believe his eyes as this was over 25 years ago.he was scared stiff in case it was a bank robberey or some like. he handed it over to the guards (irish police) and he reclaimed it after one year and a day .lucky sod.

It was a dark and stormy day
 

Cats and dogs rain, Saw a blue bill , stopped and pisked up a crumpled 5 $ {this is Canada ** Then I saw some greenies {20$** I picked up 14 soggy crumpled bills {265$** Continued in the rain , but on reflection I thought I should have gone down into the ditch and looked at the mattress.Ah I'm coming back tomorrow, I"ll be back ! But when I got there, the ditch was bare !!! So to this day I search carefully and have found tools,cameras , beer and even a expensive MTB , returned to owner via serial # for a 100$ reward . So keep one eye on the edge of the road PS My most despised roadside offering from the gods are disposable diapers , there is a special place in hell for this !

I picked up a penny yesterday. :lol:

I have never found anything of value on tour but I have a whole collection of tools I have found along the road on my local rides. My buddy found a $20 on the Selkirk loop somewhere out of Nelson as I recall. We had stopped for lunch beside a beautiful lake. I got a perfect spot all picked out. Perfect size and shape of rock, making for a comfortable scenic view of the lake. I got up to use the "facilities" and the SOB that just found the $20 took my rock! Shows you that people with money think hey can behave how ever they please. :)

Oh and found a 5 "cent" Swiss coin in Switzerland. :) on the road. It was kins of unusual as they had been an EU member for sometime.

A few years back we were touring through tiny Gateway, Colorado, heading out of town at the start of a big climb. Spotted some quarters (25c) on the side of the road. Stopped. Picked up about $5 worth of them.

Not on bike, I was working "in the field" for my work, surveying (walking around looking for artifacts) in a remote area and I found two $1 bills. They were pretty weathered. Not sure how they ended up way out there.

I found $35 on the street in Aspen. I was there for work, and after a nasty, grimy day on the job site, I walked back to my truck. As I approached the truck, I glimpsed a small wad of cash on the street paper-clipped to a Starbuck's list. The funny thing, at the bottom of the note it said "make sure you ask for the Locals' Discount!" I didn't even bother trying to find out whose money it was, I stuck it in my pocket and enjoyed a few beers out that night in Carbondale where they had us staying, 40 or so miles up the road.

Did you ask for the discount too??? :)

I've never found any significant amount of money on the roadside, <10 bucks. I have found tools, a bag of 8" plastic tie straps, CDs, several rolls of tape (medical, duct), beer, a couple cellphones, and other stuff I can't presently recall.

The beer was ditched by kids on the way home at night, hidden (not very well) in brush just before the entrance to large housing developments.

One of the found cellphones belonged to the live-in GF of an always-hostile cager down the road from my home. In looking for a contact to try and return the phone, I discovered a series of texts between the woman and her secret lover. The couple split up weeks later, the GF quit coming around, and I trashed the phone as she never responded to my voicemail message. From then on, every time that cager flew by me I had a little chuckle. He moved away too only a year later.

Switzerland is actually conspicuously not a member of the EU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union) and use their own currency. They do have a lot agreements with EU member countries (e.g., Schengen agreement) for things like free passage.

Ah thanks. I ASSUMED they were a member since I was not hassled for passport when crossing from Italy. I had more trouble on the Italian side crossing in when I make the mistake of snapping a picture of the border and was met by several Italian soldiers with automatic weapons. Turns out there was a military base nearby and photos were not allowed. After he saw it was just a pic of the border he let me go.

And now that I think of it I did have to convert Euros to Swiss money when going there or at least the prices. Near the border I think they give you eu change for eu money.