Contest Time!

It was finally time. Pennies were spilling onto the floor from my overflowing pasta sauce jars and plastic tiki cups. I loaded my booty (3 years worth!) into an empty Trader Joe's Chocolate Pussy container and hit the Coinstar machine...hard.

In the past, I was a coin roller. It was the only logical choice -- those damnable Coinstar machines would take out 8.5 cents on the dollar for thier valuable "service". But now, you can get your 8.5 cents back if you redeem your coins for Amazon, iTunes (or Cabellas!) gift certificates. It's like free money!

Needless to say, I've already placed my Amazon order and loaded up on books, DS games, Roomba filters, magazine subscriptions and some surprising beverage item (well, maybe not "surprising", depending on how well you know me). Quite a haul (still no Wii, though).

Now is the part where you come in. Guess how much money was in the container -- leave your answers in the comments. The closest guesser wins some wonderful item from today's purchase, delivered to your house by a uniformed representative of the United States federal government!


Special Booby Prize: The person who most closely guesses the number of dimes, wins the couple of 0.50€ pieces that the machine rudely spit back out. (But realize, that's practically $2, making the booby prize probably a much better deal. )

UPDATE! Boy, am I an idiot! Apparently, Coinstar machines are ridiculously easy to hack.