The coins stay where they are, sometimes until March. Guests don't pick them up, and the neighbors don't touch them. My friend is sort of the resident witch in her neighborhood. (The kids bring her black kittens.) Her area isn't the best part of town. I've had to hide under the bench in her garden because the local gangstas were shooting at each other. But my friend has lived there all her life, and most of her neighbors respect her.