What Happens to Trevi Fountain Coins?

How the coins are collected

Twice a week, early in the morning before the piazza fills, workers from ACEA gather the coins. Workers use long brooms and suction hoses to gather the coins, which are then dried, sorted and counted before the proceeds go to Caritas.

ACEA, Rome's water utility, carries out the collection — not AMA, the waste-management company. This is the single most-repeated error in coverage of the topic, and we had it wrong here too until we checked the Reuters reporting.

Separately from coin collection, the fountain is drained for cleaning roughly twice a month. Reuters, which followed the process, describes the coins being dried and sorted with improvised equipment — hairdryers and cutlery dryers among them — before counting.

How much money it actually is

Recent verified annual collections have been around €1.4 million, although totals vary with visitor numbers. Here is what we can attribute to a source:

We deliberately do not publish a complete year-by-year sequence. Filling the gaps with estimates would make the dataset look authoritative when it isn't.

Two things reliably move the total: visitor volume, and interruptions. Jubilee years and restoration or cleaning closures both show up in the numbers, which is why a single annual figure should always be read as a range rather than a constant.

Where the money goes: Caritas

The proceeds go to Caritas di Roma. Reliable reporting confirms the funds support:

• A food bank distributing supplies to families in need.
• A soup kitchen serving hot meals daily.
• The Emporio della Solidarietà, a supermarket-style service where households shop with a points card rather than cash.
• Broader welfare projects across the city, including support for people without shelter.

There was a public dispute in 2018 when the city explored redirecting part of the money to municipal welfare programmes. The arrangement with Caritas continued.

Why the Trevi total is knowable at all

There is no global register of coin-fountain revenue, and figures quoted for shopping-centre ponds or theme-park fountains are rarely traceable to a primary source. We are not going to publish comparison numbers we cannot link to.

What can be said is narrower and more useful: the Trevi is one of the best-documented major wishing-fountain collections, with an established collection process run by ACEA and a named charitable recipient in Caritas di Roma. That combination — a formal process plus a reporting charity — is why a credible annual figure exists for the Trevi and not for most fountains where people throw coins.

Taking coins out is not allowed

Reaching into the basin is prohibited under the monument's rules — the penalty for drawing water or entering the water starts from €450 — and removing coins destined for charity is treated as theft. This applies even to a coin you just threw. See the full rules and penalties.

The man who took coins for decades

Roberto Cercelletta, nicknamed "D'Artagnan", removed coins from the Trevi over a period commonly described as around 34 years, using a long homemade tool to sweep or retrieve them from the basin. His activity stopped around 2002 after the city moved against it.

The story is usually told as a tidy morality tale with exact dates, weekly earnings and a "magnetic rake". Contemporary reporting, including in The Guardian, describes something messier: a long-running dispute between one man and the city, ending in arrests, protests and legal action. We have dropped the precise figures we previously published because we could not source them.

The coin ritual

The standard modern instruction: stand with your back to the fountain, hold the coin in your right hand, and toss it over your left shoulder into the basin. The three-coin version says one coin means a return to Rome, two a romance, and three a marriage.

Those meanings are modern popular folklore, shaped by cinema and tourism rather than ancient tradition — the 1954 film Three Coins in the Fountain did most of the work. For the step-by-step technique, see the dedicated Trevi Fountain coin ritual guide, or our complete Trevi Fountain guide for planning the visit itself.

Sources and further reading

• Reuters — reporting on Trevi Fountain coin collections and Caritas (March 2024)
• The Guardian — the man who scooped coins from the Trevi
• Fontana di Trevi — official visitor information (Roma Capitale)
• Turismo Roma — Fontana di Trevi

Facts on this page last checked: August 2026. Official rules, prices and opening hours in Rome change — always confirm on the official site before your visit.

Continue reading about the Trevi Fountain

Plan the visit itself

• Complete Trevi Fountain visitor guide
• Trevi Fountain map & what's nearby
• Pantheon to Trevi walking route
• Spanish Steps to Trevi walk
• Half a day around the Trevi Fountain
• One day in Rome itinerary

Frequently Asked Questions

Who collects the coins from the Trevi Fountain?

Workers from ACEA, Rome's water utility, carry out the collection — not AMA, the city's waste-management company. The coins are then dried, sorted and counted before the proceeds go to Caritas.

Who gets the money from the Trevi Fountain?

Caritas di Roma, the Catholic charity that operates a food bank, soup kitchen, solidarity supermarket and welfare projects across the city.

How much money is collected at the Trevi Fountain every year?

Recent verified figures are around €1.4 million a year — Reuters reported €1.4 million for 2022, and Caritas reporting put 2016 at a similar level. Totals vary with visitor numbers.

How are the coins collected from the Trevi Fountain?

Twice a week, ACEA workers use long brooms and suction hoses to gather the coins. The fountain is separately drained for cleaning roughly twice a month.

How much money is in the Trevi Fountain right now?

Because collection happens twice weekly, the basin never accumulates a large hoard — but published per-day figures circulating online are estimates rather than verified counts.