Simple coin mech for old pennies

[alex_holden]

Has anyone got a design for a simple coin mech that will accept old British pennies and reject other coins? I've seen the one on Tim Hunkin's web site but that's too simple in that it will accept any denomination of coin. It doesn't need to be tamper-proof.

[Bent Copper]

The coin slot itself can reject oversize coins, so you only need to reject coins which are under diameter and under thickness.

To reject underdiameter coins, they are rolled down a runway which supports them only at the extreme top and bottom of the coin. The chute is tilted to one side, so that any coin that is under diameter will fall sideways into the reject chute. This is the reason that most coin slots are tilted to one side rather than vertical.

To reject thin coins, you just cut a slot in the lower runway, so that thin coins will fall through, and coins of the right thickness will pass over the slot to the end of the runway.

They are the basic checks for dimensions, but some machines also include a bounce test to check for weight, checks for washers or tokens (hole in the middle) and checks for magnetism, etc.

[alex_holden]

Thanks, that sounds pretty simple to make and the basic size checks are good enough for my purposes. I'll give it a go. I suppose I'll have to experiment a bit with the angles and tolerances to get it reliable.

[slotalot]

Hi, ... this may be of use to anyone wanting to make a coin opp slot machine..

[pennymachines]

Nice find slotalot! That's the system Bent Copper was describing.

José Pino's Projects and Tidbits website is full of interesting do-it-yourself projects and ideas.

Coin Mechanism for Coin-operated Projects I
DIY Coin Mechanism for vending machine II