Great Loose Change Search

The Great Loose Change Search was a hybrid documentary/charity special which ran for about a month during Spring 2004 on the former APFS Network, and was produced by TotalAccess.

Each APFS Network region was charged to collect as much loose change from viewers as possible. As a matter of friendly competition, the region that collected the most amount of money was treated to a special music concert the following month.

Every hour-long episode featured each individual region's collection of change, and the stories behind several unique donations. Such stories included a man in the Ribble Valley who had a swear jar... with about £1,500 inside, plus a ten-year old who donated the £50 in change in his coin jar that he was saving for a computer (a major computer company gave him the computer immediately following his donation.)

The finale episode was aired live from London. Though the region-by-region competition results had already been tabulated, for dramatic effect two dump trucks filled with all the coins collected were brought into a giant "coin sorting machine," which counted the coins throughout the broadcast. The final tally was £2,576,042.17, which was rounded up to £3 million by TotalAccess and APFS Network. To that, an additional £2 million was donated by the assorted business which sponsored the series.

A second series was planned but did not make it to production on APFS Network.

American Version
In 2008, TotalAccess' American network, AccessONE, commissioned an adaptation of the format. A seven episode series followed the stories of several citizens across the country who had the most interesting stories about how they came across their backlogs of change, and what compelled them to just give it all away.

The finale was a two-hour concert special with the same 'coin-sorting machine' demonstration. The final total of donated change was $10,078,891.07. Corporate sponsors (who also made sizeable contributions) and the network rounded out the total to an even $15 million.