"In fiscal year 2010, travelers left $376,480.39 in loose change in the bottoms of plastic bins at the checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration. In 2009, the abandoned coins totaled more than $399,000." Thats quite a bit of pocket change. http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/06/9979819-lawmaker-targets-tsas-big-chunk-of-change
That is a lot of loose change and does not include coins that were not turned in to TSA finance department for counting.
I've had more than one TSA agent run after me for leaving change in the plastic tubs. And since in Canada our 1$ and 2$ are coins, it can add up quickly.
That's why I have as few individual items as possible as I go through security. I cringe when I see people drop cellphones, wallets, passports, drivers licenses, keys, coins, hair clips, jewelery, watches, ... into those nasty bins. All that stuff is in a designated pocket of my carry on. It's bad enough that I typically need 2-3 bins for laptop, IPad, wet bag, shoes, ... (iPad because in 43.5% of all cases they will rescan/take apart my backpack if it contains an iPad despite what they say on their website).
Once I threw all my change, keys, kay chains etc. into a designated pocket in my laptop/carry on bag. They ended up running it through the x-ray twice and pulled me aside. Apparently the change and other stuff in the pocket created an odd looking image in the x-ray. Since then I try to leave as much at home and keep throwing the rest in the grey tub. I recently upgraded to Tom Bihn tri-fold bag. About 80% of the time they don't make me take it out. I still cringe at what it cost me
My laptop is in a cheap sleeve in the backpack. It comes out of the backpack at the checkpoint, but never the sleeve. Never had my carry-on searched because of keys and coins. Too many cables/chargers/cameras/eReaders/tablets/phones stacked on top of each other will do it.
