Coin rush excluded - what's your best coin count? And in which level did you manage it?

I'm currently sitting at 1667 in World 2-4, but I know that's far from the best.

I got 900+ in 5-3. The trick is to jump through the yellow hoop and then make sure you don't get in the way of the koopa shell as it ricochets and then slides down three long ramps, and you get 10-50 coins for each enemy killed. Cash money.

I have trouble with getting the most out of that level.  It seems like it's really difficult to access some areas, so I always miss one or two gold mines of coins.

Nice! A tip - if you can get ahold of a gold flower (which you can have in ANY level if you pull the right strings!), every enemy killed after a gold ring does DOUBLE what it would normally (so 100 instead of 50!).

Do you mean to say that a Golden Flower power-up is hidden in every level, or that you can use one in any level if you get it in a separate level and bring it into another one?

I got 4789 in 1-1.

I used of course a gold flower.

I mean you can use one in any level if you get it in a special level and bring it there. There are certain levels that are incredibly easy to get into that practically guarantee you finishing with a golden flower, ready to use...

holy crap, I'm going to need to get me a gold flower and hit that level up. I knew it's easy to get a lot of coins there but that's ridiculous!

7403 in 1-1. The Gold Flower + Repeated Goomba Towers = Profit!

Yeah, it took me a couple tries to figure out that trick, but I got it before you said!

What technique do you use to make your tower repeat? Do you go to the underground secret area or the sky one?

I was about to get just over 5000 on this last coin run, then accidentally mis-shot my gold fireball and ran into the 3-stack Goombas with about 40 seconds left, so I finished at 4576 as my new best!

Haha, that 1667 seems like child's play now.