How much money is thrown into the Trevi Fountain each year — and where the coins go

Toss a coin over your shoulder into the Trevi Fountain and legend says you will return to Rome. Millions of visitors take the bet every year — and the small change adds up to one of the most productive water features on the planet.

So how much money is thrown into the Trevi Fountain? The best-documented answer comes from the charity that counts it. Caritas Rome, the Catholic non-profit that receives the coins, estimated the haul at about €1.4 million in 2016 — roughly US$1.5 million at the exchange rate of the day — and close to €1.5 million in 2018. Year after year the total lands in the same €1.4–1.5 million band, which makes the fountain a remarkably steady earner.

Broken down, that is a lot of loose change every single day. Press reports put the Trevi Fountain money per day at roughly €3,000, and the 2016 annual figure divided across the calendar works out higher still — about €3,800, or around US$4,100, in coins landing in the basin each day.

The Trevi Fountain money per day, in wage terms

Because those daily numbers are so large, the fountain is often compared to a salaried worker — and this is where the site's original "28 times the minimum wage" headline came from. It is worth being precise about the arithmetic, because the multiple depends entirely on the assumption you make.

The honest, round-the-clock version works like this. Take the 2016 total of about US$1.5 million and divide it across the year: US$1,500,000 ÷ 365 days ÷ 24 hours gives roughly US$171 an hour. Against the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, that is about 24 times the minimum wage — a fair, like-for-like comparison. The larger "28 times" figure only appears if you pretend the fountain clocks off after an eight-hour day, which inflates its apparent hourly rate. Either way, the point holds: as an earner, the Trevi Fountain comfortably out-paces the lowest-paid workers in the United States.

On a round-the-clock basis the Trevi Fountain takes in about US$171 an hour — roughly 24 times the US federal minimum wage.

Who collects the Trevi Fountain coins

The money does not sit in the water for long. A city cleaning crew empties the basin on a regular schedule, and the process is more hands-on than most visitors imagine. Workers use long-handled brushes to sweep the Trevi Fountain coins into piles, then run a suction hose across the bottom of the pool to lift the change out of the water. The coins are bagged on the spot and carried away under police supervision, a precaution against the opportunists who used to wade in at night to scoop out a share for themselves.

Where does the Trevi Fountain money go?

The question visitors ask most is where does the Trevi Fountain money go — and the answer has been the same since 2001, when the city decided the coins should serve the public rather than the municipal budget. Every euro swept from the basin is donated to Caritas, the Catholic charity active across Rome.

For Caritas the sum is not symbolic. The Trevi Fountain donation has come to represent around 15 percent of the charity's annual budget, money that funds soup kitchens, homeless shelters, a subsidised supermarket for families on low incomes, and services such as a canteen and a dental clinic for residents living in poverty. In effect, the wishes of tourists bankroll a meaningful slice of the city's frontline social care. Understanding where the Trevi Fountain money goes tends to change how people feel about tossing in a coin at all.

The legend behind the coins

The tradition itself is what keeps the basin full. Custom holds that a visitor should throw the coin with the right hand over the left shoulder, back to the fountain. One coin is said to guarantee a return to Rome, a second promises a new romance, and a third supposedly leads to marriage. It is a small piece of theatre repeated thousands of times a day — and, collectively, it is why the answer to how much money is thrown into the Trevi Fountain runs comfortably into seven figures every year.

Frequently asked questions

For more on the crowds that make it all possible, see the world's most visited tourist attractions, or browse the full travel statistics archive on the TravelStatsMan home page.