Just about any TH'er who hunts on the average of once a week or more will collect at least three-hundred dollars in modern coins a year. So what does he or she do with them? Well, for starters, most TH'ers set aside their coins for making TH'ing equipment purchases but many spend them as fast a they find them on other things. Myself, I spend them on lottery tickets. You see, I made a vow to myself to never spend my own money on gambling. Instead, if it is money I accumulated by any other means, other than earned, then it is free. At least the money does not have to be reported to IRS. You see, "found money" is not earned income and does not have to be reported. Good enough for me. My average for the last several years has been right at six-hundred dollars a year. Quite a sum when you look at it all in one pile. This amount would certainly buy a mid to upper-priced metal detector each year, but that does not enter my mind. Instead, my goal is to hit the big one some day - in the Florida State Lottery. Most of the money I invested in lottery tickets has already paid off in the way of small, three number wins. Not enough to offset the expenditure of purchasing the tickets mind you, but it has been considerable enough to make a third more purchases. For roughly $600 I am buying $750 worth of lottery tickets each year. So, maybe you think buying lottery tickets is wasting money, but I don't. More than fifty percent of all lottery money goes to education. In my mind that is a good investment considering I am a teacher. The other percentage goes to government coffers, but so what? It could go to worse places. Everyone has the freedom to do with their money as they please. I choose to buy lottery tickets with the free money I find, pure and simple. Statistics show folks lose on average of two percent of their change each year. Heck, I'm just collecting it and investing it wisely for your children. And, in the meantime, if the money happens to make me a millionaire, then so much the better. If not? Well, let' just say it cost me nothing. Besides, I enjoyed finding and investing your change. Metal detecting is a hobby that has afforded me good health with exercise that I would never have received voluntarily. And then there is all that gold and silver jewelry I have found along the way, too. Yeah, that will go towards my retirement - that is - if my lotto numbers don't come in first. If they do then I won't need the jewelry. Either way I have nothing to lose. I only have everything to find . . . or is that "to gain."