Coin mechanism

A coin mechanism comprising a testing mechanism for testing coins as to their acceptability and denomination, an accept/reject gate which is normally in a reject position but is electrically powered to an accept position in response to the testing mechanism determining that a coin is acceptable, and an electrically-actuated coin separator adapted to receive the acceptable coins from the accept/reject gate and direct them selectively towards different destinations in dependence upon their denominations as determined by the testing mechanism, characterised by mechanism adapted to provide power for electrical actuation of the coin separator, following failure of electrical power for the accept/reject gate, for a period sufficient to allow the coin separator to complete the direction towards its correct destination of a coin which has passed the accept/reject gate in its accept position. This avoids a coin being directed by the separator to the wrong destination if a power failure occurs after a coin has been committed to the separator but before the separator has directed it to the correct destination, thus avoiding coin jams.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Field of the Invention 
This invention relates to coin mechanisms. 
The term "coin" when used herein includes genuine coins, tokens, 
counterfeit coins and any other objects which may be inserted into a coin 
mechanism in an attempt to obtain any kind of goods or services. 
The invention particularly relates to coin mechanisms which test coins as 
to their acceptability and, if acceptable, indicate their denomination, 
which have an accept/reject gate which is normally in a reject position 
but is electrically powered to an accept position when the testing means 
finds a coin acceptable, and have an electrically-actuated coin separator 
adapted to receive the acceptable coins from the accept/reject gate and 
direct them selectively towards different destinations in dependence upon 
their denominations. When a coin does not meet the criteria for 
acceptability, power is not applied to the accept/reject gate which thus 
remains in its reject position and this directs the coin onto a path which 
delivers it back for retrieval by the customer. 
The destinations for accepted coins typically include a plurality of coin 
stores for specific coin denominations, these usually being in the form of 
coin tubes, which may have different diameters depending upon the 
particular coin denomination each is intended to contain, and which are 
adapted to hold the coins to them in a vertical stack face-to-face. A coin 
dispensing arrangement is provided for dispensing appropriate combinations 
of coins from the bottoms of the stacks for the purpose of giving change 
or providing prizes. Additionally, there is usually a cashbox to which are 
directed coins which it is not intended to dispense either as change or as 
prizes, and also coins which might normally be directed to specific coin 
stores but which are accepted when the particular coin store in question 
is already full. 
Coin mechanisms of this general type are well known and widely sold. 
A problem that can occur is coin jams resulting from an acceptable coin of 
a particular denomination inadvertently being directed to a destination 
which is not intended for coins of that denomination. For example, this 
may happen if a coin of a particular diameter is actually delivered to a 
coin tube intended for coins of a smaller diameter, when the jam may occur 
within or at the top of the tube itself, or it may occur if a coin of a 
given thickness is delivered into a tube intended for coins of a greater 
thickness, in which case the jam may occur when the dispenser is operated 
in an attempt to dispense the coin which is thinner than those it is 
designed to dispense. 
Some coin separators are of a passive type, that is to say they contain 
mechanical, unpowered, features which can cause arriving coins to be 
directed onto different paths by mechanical interaction with dimensional 
features of the coins such as their diameters and thicknesses. Other types 
of separators, often referred to as active separators, include movable 
elements which can be electrically actuated to adopt two or more different 
positions, the actuation being carried out in response to a signal or 
signals indicative of the denomination of the coin as determined by the 
testing means, and the position of the movable element, or the combined 
positions of several such movable elements, cause the arriving coin to be 
directed onto a path appropriate for a coin of that particular 
denomination at that time. It is also possible for coin separators to be 
partly passive but also partly active and for the purpose of the present 
specification the term "electrically-actuated coin separator" includes any 
coin separator which relies, if only even in part, upon electrical 
actuation for its correct operation. 
It has been found that coin jams downstream of the coin separator occur 
more often when electrically-actuated separators are used than when 
passive separators are used. The reasons are not always completely clear 
nor easy to determine. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the present invention is to reduce the extent to which power 
failures, whether brief interruptions or long ones, can cause 
mis-direction of coins by an electrically-actuated coin separator, and 
hence reduce the incidence of coin jams. 
In accordance with the invention, means is provided which is adapted to 
provide power for electrical actuation of the coin separator, following 
failure of electrical power for the accept/reject gate, for a period 
sufficient to allow the coin separator to complete the direction towards 
an appropriate destination of a coin which has passed the accept/reject 
gate in its accept position. 
Once a coin has passed the accept/reject gate, having been found 
acceptable, an immediate failure of the power for the actuation of the 
separator would result in the separator either not being actuated to the 
correct condition for the particular denomination of that coin or, if it 
had already been so actuated, in being prematurely de-actuated. In either 
event, the coin would be directed to the wrong destination unless the coin 
had already travelled sufficiently far through the separator to have 
become committed to the correct destination. 
This particular possible cause of coin jams is eliminated by the present 
invention since for a limited, but sufficient, period the power needed to 
maintain the correct actuated condition, or to initiate such actuation and 
also maintain it, is provided for sufficiently long for correct direction 
of the coin to be achieved. It is not, of course, necessary for power to 
be provided for long enough for the coin to actually arrive at its 
destination, so long as it is provided for long enough to be certain that 
the coin is committed to arrival at that destination. For the present 
purpose, a power failure occurring immediately before a coin reaches the 
accept/reject gate is unimportant because the resulting non-powering of 
the accept reject gate will cause the coin to be rejected, even though 
preferably it might have been accepted, but there will be no internal 
mis-routing of the coin.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
In the drawing, a coin mechanism 2 comprises coin testing means 4 having an 
inlet 6 for coins 8 to be tested. A microprocessor 10 is schematically 
illustrated, which normally will form part of the testing means. 
Microprocessor 10 compares measurements which are taken on the coin by the 
testing means with reference values appropriate to various different 
denominations of acceptable coins. When the comparison indicates that the 
coin inserted is acceptable the microprocessor provides a signal which 
causes power application to the actuator, normally a solenoid, of an 
accept/reject gate 12 which moves to a position such that the coin is 
delivered into a coin separator 14. If the coin is not found acceptable, 
the actuator of the accept/reject gate is not powered and so remains in a 
reject position such that the coin takes a path (not shown) back to the 
exterior of the mechanism where the customer can retrieve it. 
When a coin is acceptable, the microprocessor 10 also provides a signal, on 
output lines 16, indicative of the denomination of the coin. Coin tubes 
18, 20 and 22 are provided each of which is intended in normal operation 
to receive accepted coins of a particular respective denomination. 
The coin separator 14 is actuated in response to the coin denomination as 
indicated by the output signal on lines 16, so as to direct the coin, in 
dependence upon its denomination, towards the correct one of the tubes 18, 
20 and 22 on one of the paths generally indicated by the arrows 24, if 
necessary via a suitable manifold. One of the paths out of the separator 
may lead to a cashbox 42 for receiving any denominations that are not 
needed for dispensing, and any accepted coins which would normally go to a 
coin tube but which are diverted to the cashbox if the respective coin 
tube is already full. Actuation of the separator may consist of energising 
the appropriate ones of a plurality of solenoids which control the 
configuration of a set of gates, or the appropriate positioning of a motor 
which in turn positions a coin guide to direct a coin through the 
appropriate one of several outlets of the separator. 
When there is a requirement for change to be given, or for a prize to be 
paid out, a dispensing unit 26 is operated in well-known manner to 
dispense to the customer the appropriate coin or combination of coins from 
the bottoms of the coin stacks in tubes 18, 20 and 22. 
Power for operation of the mechanism is provided from a power supply 
circuit 28 which delivers appropriate voltages to the various sections of 
the mechanism on lines 30, 32, 34 and 36, the power supply circuit 28 in 
turn being powered from the mains 37 or possibly, in some applications, a 
battery or other source of power. 
The principles of operation and construction of the mechanism as just 
described are all known to the man skilled in the art and therefore 
further detailed description is not required. 
As previously explained, if the power on line 34, for actuating the coin 
separator 14, were to fail at any time after a coin is committed to enter 
the separator from the accept/reject gate but before that coin has been 
directed by the separator towards the correct tube 18, 20 or 22, it would 
be possible for the coin to arrive in the wrong tube and hence cause a 
jam. 
This is avoided by providing a back-up circuit 38 which continues to 
provide power on line 34 for actuating, or maintaining the existing 
actuation of, the coin separator for a limited period after a failure of 
the power outputs from the power supply 28, which might arise from 
internal reasons or from failure of the mains 37. Additionally, circuit 38 
continues to supply power on line 32 to the microprocessor 10 so that the 
coin denomination signals on lines 16 are maintained hence ensuring that 
the separator actuator or actuators are correctly energised, as well as 
ensuring that power is available for their energisation. 
The circuit 38 may be a simple capacitative circuit, maintained in a 
charged state from the power supply circuit 28, or it may include a small 
rechargeable battery also maintained in a charged state by power supply 
circuit 28. Since the time required for an efficient separator to complete 
the correct routing of a coin will normally be substantially less than one 
second, perhaps 150 milliseconds or less, a battery would not in most 
cases be required. 
If for any reason it were desirable, back-up power for the separator could 
be provided for half a second, one second, or even 5 seconds. 
A refinement of the invention will now be described. Some separators are 
such that they will take different periods of time to direct a coin 
towards respective different ones of their outlets. To operate the 
invention as described above, back-up power would have to be available for 
a period of time equal to the time it takes for a coin to move from the 
most upstream position at which a coin can become committed to take the 
accept route past the accept/reject gate to the position at which its 
direction by the separator has been completed on the longest (in terms of 
time) route through the separator. In most coin acceptance and separation 
arrangements, it will be possible to define a point between the point of 
commitment to the accept route and the point of entry into the separator, 
such that if power failure occurs when the coin is upstream of that 
intermediate point, there is still time to change the actuation of the 
separator so as to direct the coin towards a different destination from 
its normal one. Furthermore, it can be arranged that the shortest (in 
time) route through the separator is the one that leads to the cashbox and 
that it is this route which is adopted as the alternative or preferred 
route when power failure occurs when a coin is at or upstream of the 
intermediate point just referred to. The cashbox route is appropriate for 
all denominations of coins in the sense that delivery of any denomination 
to the cashbox does not cause a problem, though of course it is not the 
optimum route for denominations stored in coin tubes. Then, the period for 
which back-up power must be available is either the time it takes for a 
coin to move from the intermediate point to a point where its direction by 
the separator has been completed on the longest (in terms of time) path 
through the separator, or the time it takes for a coin to move from the 
point of commitment to the accept route to a point where its direction by 
the separator has been completed on the shortest (in terms of time) 
cashbox path, whichever is the longer. Both of these time periods will be 
shorter than the period of back-up power required when operating the 
invention as initially described. For a given set-up, the length of the 
longer period, and hence the amount of back-up power to be provided, can 
be determined empirically. 
To effect this refinement in the embodiment described, a coin detector 13 
is positioned such that it can detect a coin after it has been committed 
to, and is moving through, the accept path. The "intermediate point" 
referred to above may be defined by the leading edge of the signal from 
sensor 13 generated as the coin enters that detector, or the trailing edge 
of the signal, generated as the coin leaves the detector. By supplying the 
output of detector 13 to the microprocessor 10, and appropriately 
programming the microprocessor 10, the microprocessor 10 can determine 
whether power failure occurs early enough for the separator to be actuated 
to direct the coin to the cashbox, or so late that the normal actuation of 
the separator for that particular coin should be maintained. 
It is common for a coin detector to be located just after the point of 
commitment to the accept path from the accept/reject gate, primarily for 
the purpose of indicating that a coin has become irretrievable and 
therefore credit in respect of that coin may be given. Such a detector may 
be used as detector 13, so that no additional coin detector need be 
provided.