The millions down back of the sofa

The average person thinks they have 1.61 down the back of their sofa, while two-thirds of us regularly find loose coins, according to Halifax.

Pockets, bags, and cars are also common places to mislay money, researchers found.

Desk drawers usually contain the highest amount of change. On average, people believe they have 17.69 lying around.

When it comes to picking up money in the street, most would pick up no less than 50p, unless it was a 1p coin and could be lucky.

ICM surveyed 2,029 people for Halifax between July 29 and August 1.

It found that if the average amount of loose change was 1.61, then around 26 million households in the UK would have 42.9m in coins down the back of their sofas.

Flavia Palacios Umana, of Halifax Savings, said: "These figures prove that we should no longer ignore our loose change but manage these small sums more wisely.

"The old saying 'Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves' continues to be firmly the case. We need to recognise this, instead of leaving our loose change languishing down the back of the sofa."