The nine gold coin hunters who successfully put their heads together have cashed in on their S$100,000 prize.

Sqkii presented the team the prize money at a celebratory bash on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019.

Two members of the team found the gold coin underneath a tree in the private housing estate at Jalan Naung in Hougang on Jan. 15 this year.

The find ended the hunt, which lasted for 34 days.

Together with the silver coin hunters, a total of S$134,000 was given away.

Strangers

The pair, Shafiq Apandi, 21, and Wesley Lim, 30, were strangers who met while hunting for the silver coins in the middle of December 2018.

Along with seven other strangers, the nine of them formed a team after meeting each other online in the Telegram group chats that were formed by other Singaporeans hunting for the gold and silver coins.

The team of nine eventually formed their own group chat, sharing clues, hints and deductions with each other, and even meeting up to look for the coins together.

They also made a pact to share the prize money with the whole group, if one of them ended up finding the gold or silver coins.

Shafiq said: “To us, #HuntTheMouse is more than just looking for cash. It’s a community that all of us are glad to be part of."

"We’d like to thank everyone who worked hard serving the community through Telegram. Though they are hunters themselves, hunting for the same mouse, they put the community first by making sure everybody is having a fun time and spent day and night making sure that there were no fake hints."

He said he would have to skip the hunt this year if there were to be another one, due to his final-year project commitments.

Shafiq said he has put aside 80 percent of his prize money for school and monthly expenses to last him until he graduates.

He also plans to treat his whole family to dinner.

Lim said that the team will likely hunt together as a team again for the next edition of the cash hunt.

The team of nine had recently hosted a chalet and invited some members of the community that they are close to and had helped them while hunting for the coins.

Sqkii also presented 34 participants with S$1,000 cash each who found silver coins over the course of the whole campaign.

Coin hunt will live on

The organiser has also announced that the #HuntTheMouse game will live on, but on a smaller scale.

The silver coin segment will start from March 1 this year, with cash prizes ranging from S$100 to S$5,000.

The goal is also to encourage community involvement and helping others, as the hunt will also feature a lost-and-found map subsequently.

The feature will allow the public to submit lost-and-found notices, and participants can help to look for the items while concurrently looking for the coins.

During the recently concluded coin hunt, a person who was reported missing was spotted by participants and subsequently found by others.