Transportation Security Administration agents collect nearly a million dollars in abandoned loose change every single year at airport security checkpoints across the United States.

A closer look

Transportation Security Administration agents collect nearly a million dollars in abandoned loose change every single year at airport security checkpoints across the United States. Passengers are in such a frantic, shoe-removing, laptop-separating panic that they routinely sprint to their departure gates and leave literal mountains of coins sitting in those little plastic gray bins. Since nobody wants to turn around and endure the wrath of the security line just to retrieve seventy-three cents, the government simply keeps the massive pile of abandoned cash. It is truly inspiring to see how efficiently we have monetized the collective anxiety of the modern traveler, turning the sheer, unadulterated terror of missing a boarding group into a highly lucrative secondary revenue stream for federal aviation authorities!