What Are Coin Change Machines?

When it comes to converting loose change into cash, many people turn to kiosks like Coinstar. After pouring coins into a metal tray, the machine mechanically sorts and counts them before dispensing them in paper rolls.

The manufacturers of these machines must determine what kind of money and bills to accept, as well as how many coin hoppers to use. They also need to consider the machine’s display capabilities.

Bill Acceptor

A bill acceptor is the part of a coin change machine that reads a dollar bill and pulls it inside the machine to feed it to the coin discriminator. Bills are heavier than coins and need to be pulled inside the machine, or else they will float around the machine. The bill acceptor has small electrically powered rollers that push the bills down a shaft to the discriminator. These rollers need to be cleaned to keep them working properly, and they can also wear out. To clean them, insert a cleaning card into the dollar slot. This will force the rollers to move back and forth over the paper, which should get rid of any dirt or dust that may be blocking their path.

When deciding on a bill acceptor for your vending machine, find one that has a high first-pass acceptance rate. This means that it will accept 95 percent of all the bills inserted into the machine, without requiring any repeat attempts. It is also important to choose a bill acceptor with a good rating for each denomination (i.e. $5s and $10s).

Another important factor to consider is how many quarters you will need to dispense on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. This will help you determine how many coin hoppers are needed and what type of bill box is required behind the bill acceptor.

There are two types of bill Coin Change Machine acceptors: wall-mounted models and free standing floor models. The former are lighter and easier to install, but they have lower coin capacity and fewer advanced features. The latter are larger and heavier, but they have more advanced security measures and higher coin output.

When choosing a bill acceptor for your change machine, be sure to read the manufacturer’s recommendations. There are specific things that you should look for, such as an anti-fraud sensor that helps prevent money-laundering and other criminal activities, a patented bill lockout that stops stringing, and a user-friendly configuration. It should also come with supplier training that teaches retailers and operators how to perform simple at-the-machine repairs and maintenance.

Coin Discriminator

The coin discriminator is an important part of the change machine. It is designed to dispense coins of different denominations by sensing the electromagnetic properties of each coin. Specifically, the conductivity and magnetic permeability of the metal are sensed to determine if a coin is valid or if it should be rejected.

The coin sensor is typically a pair of coils excited by an alternating current having a range of frequency components. A sample coin of the desired type is held stationary between one of these coils, while a new coin is dropped into the path of the other excited coil. The detector circuit compares the responses of these two coils to criteria stored in its memory. If the new coin does not match the stored criteria, it triggers an output means shown generally as a driver and solenoid coil 96 in FIGURE 1. The solenoid either lifts or inserts a diverting or blocking means 98 into the feed path of the deposited coin.

This is done to ensure that the coin discriminator responds to only genuine coins, and not erroneous signals from mechanical vibrations unrelated to insertion of coins in the slot. Also, the detector circuit is designed to ignore electromagnetic signals from other objects and electrical interference from the environment surrounding the change machine.

The hoppers are typically located within the coin discriminator and are stacked together in a secure area until the operator manually empties them. The microprocessor translates information received from the sensors and relays instructions to control the pay out device. It also controls other display features such as user instructions and error messages. Depending on the specific needs of the customer, additional features can be included such as an illuminated 40-character LCD panel which allows the user to select the combination of coins and bills they would like to receive. The machine can also be programmed to automatically refill the hoppers after they are empty. The machine can even be programmed to alert the operator when a hopper is close to empty. These features can increase productivity and reduce the time required to replenish the hoppers.

Stacking Chamber

A coin change machine is a small piece of equipment used to convert coins into bills for payment. Coin Change Machine It is typically located in a public area, such as a supermarket or an airport. The machine can be free standing or wall-mounted and is equipped with a secure lock to deter theft. The machine can also detect and reject counterfeit or tampered bills. It is also a good idea to keep the machine clean and well maintained, as this will help ensure that it functions properly.

The machine sorts coins on the basis of size and denomination, and it dispenses change as needed. It can count hundreds of dollars worth of currency in a minute and is an excellent way to save time and effort. The coin counter can also count other types of currency, such as paper bills, if desired.

In an early version, a coin machine consisted of a long tube full of coins with a solenoid located at the bottom. When the machine logged a bill, it would send an electric current through the solenoid coil, which caused it to become magnetized and move upward. The coin would then slip down an exit channel until it passed over a reject pin. If the coin was of the correct size and weight, the machine would release a lever to allow it to drop into the collection chamber below.

Currently, change machines are made from modular components and are designed for a specific customer’s needs. They can be either free standing floor models or smaller wall-mounted units that take up less space. Wall-mounted units typically have lower coin holding capacities and fewer advanced features than floor models. They can be designed to meet various standards, including American National Standards (ANSI) and European Union (CE) certifications.

A new coin counting machine can reduce the amount of work that human tellers must perform by separating the different coins and matching them to their denominations. The machine can also weigh each coin to determine its total value. In addition, the coin counter can identify counterfeit coins and make a decision whether or not to accept them.

Microprocessor

The microprocessor of a coin change machine is responsible for controlling the way coins are dispensed and classified. The processor is also responsible for discriminating acceptable bills from counterfeit or tampered ones. These functions are accomplished using a series of sensors and other circuits that are interfaced to the microprocessor. Most change machines are designed to accept one and five dollar bills, although some are equipped with different bill and coin sensing technologies that allow them to be used in other types of self-service business applications.

In 1994 Standard Change-Makers became the first manufacturer to add the ability to accept $1 bills into their U.S. Change Machines with the introduction of their System 600-FST. This innovation allowed customers to use their existing change cabinets, and gained them a competitive advantage over other manufacturers who could only offer change machines that accepted only silver dollars.

As the company continued to innovate, Standard introduced the EF+ Module, which allows owners of older System 500-E, 500-FST and 600-FST models to update their old bill acceptors with Mars (MEI) or Coinco bill acceptors without having to replace their secure cabinets. EF+ modules are also available for upgrading System 100-FST and 200-FST change machines.

In the exemplary coin processor described herein, a maximum countable number for the change detection sensor is set at 20 in step S103. This value is greater than the actual number of coins in the coin storage cylinder 1 for 100 yen coins, so in step S109 the NC counter is counted down to zero. This is done so that the lever 12 provided in the coin discharging mechanism 2 will activate and force the lowest coin 13 from the cylinder into the coin discharge path 14. The coin is then pushed horizontally and abuts on a slanted portion 15 of the pathway and falls downward.

If the coin recovery switch 4 for 100 yen coins is pressed during the coin discharge process, the CPU will jump from the current operation to a newly commanded operation. For example, if the coin recovery switch for 50 yen coins is pressed while the coin discharge process for 100 yen coins is undergoing, the CPU will proceed to steps S200 through S213 shown in FIG. 5, in place of the corresponding steps S100 through S113.