How it's supposed to work: my daughter found twenty bucks near an ATM machine. No way to identify actual owner. She was going to just keep it, sweated about it for a while, then finally took it into the bank. Nobody watching.

Hell, I don't know if I would have done that. Maybe.

I'm not sure where my bar for "finders keepers" on loose cash is. If you know whose it is, the answer is obvious. Even for pennies dropping from someone's pocket.

If you don't, it seems to depend on the amount. Generally, coins are no problem. Mine. I would keep a 20 I found all by itself on the ground. Asking a crowd if anyone dropped it tends to be somewhat counterproductive. Beyond that, there's a range where you work to find the owner, but it's not something you'd take to the police. I'm not sure where that range is. I've never found enough to be "take it to the cops" money.

I did find about a hundred dollars in bills in a dark rainy parking lot once. Unfortunately for the guy who lost it, odds were it got pulled out of his pocket with his car keys as he was leaving. Still, I asked around the stores. I didn't specify the amount - the owner would know.

Finally, I left it with one of the store owners I knew. Someone losing that kind of money would look for it, and maybe ask around the stores like I did. We gave it a couple of weeks, then the owner gave it back to me and I kept it. Maybe not the most elegant solution, but it kept me happy.

If I found a big bag or box of anonymous cash, it would go straight to the police. As I understand it, if nobody claims it from them after a long enough time, or it doesn't turn out to be drug evidence or something, it's yours.