Coin dispenser

A coin dispenser drops a coin 16 onto a surface 18 for transport to a dispensing area 14. To damp the circular rolling motion of the coin 16 after it falls onto the surface 18, the surface 18 has a strip 24 onto which the coin 16 rolls, thereby bringing the coin 16 quickly to rest.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a coin dispenser. 
In some known types of coin dispensers, coins are stored in a number of 
storage tubes and are dispensed onto a surface from which they are 
laterally shifted to a dispensing area. For example, the dispensing area 
is typically restricted to a small allocated area, so that coins from at 
least some of the storage tubes, after being dropped onto the surface, 
need to be transported along the surface to the dispensing area. 
However, as is well known, a coin dropped on a surface often performs a 
circular rolling motion before coming to rest. In many cases, it is not 
possible reliably to transport the coin along the surface until it has 
come to rest. Thus, a considerable delay must be introduced between the 
time of release of the coin and the start of the transport process along 
the surface, which slows the operation of the coin dispenser. 
It is therefore desirable to bring a coin rapidly to rest after it is 
dropped upon a surface, so that the coin may be swiftly and reliably 
dispensed. 
One known solution is to select the material of the surface such that the 
energy of impact of the coin is rapidly absorbed; however, this requires 
substantial modification of existing dispensers, and the use of such 
materials may be undesirable for other reasons. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention provides a coin dispenser in which a coin is released 
onto a surface in such a way that it may execute a rolling motion in a 
circular path, including a projection positioned on the surface such that 
the coin contacts the projection while it is rolling and is thereby 
brought to rest. 
The projection may be an elongate strip, either attached to or integrally 
formed with the surface. Advantageously, the strip is arranged so that the 
coin comes to rest with one end raised and resting stably on the strip, 
while the other end rests with its corner on the surface. The dispenser 
may further comprise a dispensing area into which the coin is dispensed, 
and means for transferring the coin from the surface to the dispensing 
area. Thus, the dispensing area may be reduced, since its size and 
position is not governed by the location of the storage tubes. The 
transferring means may comprise an arm arranged to push the coin along the 
surface towards the dispensing area. The arm may be arranged to pivot or 
to slide along the surface. 
The dispenser may include a coin storage container positioned above the 
surface, and means for releasing one or more coins from the coin storage 
container and dropping them onto the surface.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
A known coin mechanism 10 is shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. Coins enter the 
mechanism through a slot 2 and are validated in a validation area 4. On 
the basis of the validation, the coins are sorted by a sorter 6 and passed 
down one of a number of channels 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d according to their 
denomination. Rejected coins are ejected through a reject path (not 
shown). The coins are stored in vertical storage tubes 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d, 
each containing coins of a respective denomination. Each storage tube 12 
includes a coin release mechanism (not shown) for releasing coins so that 
they may be dispensed. Typically, the coins are not dropped directly out 
of the storage tubes 12 but are first slid horizontally out of the storage 
tubes 12, in a direction perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 1, and then 
dropped. 
It is often a desired feature of a coin dispenser that all coins should be 
dispensed within a small allocated area, for ease of collection by the 
user. For many applications the position of the allocated dispensing area 
on the front of the dispenser is often defined by written specifications 
such as the "BDV" specification for coin changing machines, which defines 
a dispensing area towards the bottom left-hand side of the front of the 
coin dispenser. In order to comply with this requirement, coins released 
from the storage tube 12d on the right-hand side of the apparatus 10 as 
shown in FIG. 1 must be moved horizontally, as shown by arrow A, towards 
the left-hand side of the apparatus 10 in order to fall, as shown by arrow 
B, into a dispensing area 14. The coin 16 is moved horizontally because it 
is undesirable to slide a coin down an inclined surface extending from 
below the storage tube 12d to the dispensing area 14, since the inclined 
surface would then occupy an undesirable amount of space in the vertical 
direction. 
A detail of the known dispenser is shown in FIG. 2. In this figure, a coin 
16 released from the storage tube 12d falls onto a surface 18 which is 
generally flat and horizontal. As the coin 16 falls, it is in a generally 
face down orientation, but its faces are actually inclined at a small 
angle .alpha. with respect to the surface 18, that angle .alpha. tending 
to vary from coin to coin. As a result, a corner 20 of the coin 16 strikes 
the surface 18 and the coin 16 exhibits a rolling motion in a circular 
path before coming to rest on the surface 18. This motion of the coin is 
of a very well known nature, similar to precessing, with only the lower 
corner 20 of the coin's edge in contact with the surface 18. A 
representation of this motion is shown in FIG. 3, with an alternative 
position of the coin 16 shown in broken outline. 
After a predetermined period of time, the coin 16 is pushed horizontally 
towards the dispensing area 14 by an arm 22, known as a scavenger arm, as 
shown in FIG. 4. The arm 22 is synchronised with the coin-releasing 
mechanism, both of which may be actuated by a rotating cam. 
However, the length of time before the coin 16 comes to rest is variable 
and it is possible that the coin 16 is still rolling when the arm 22 is 
actuated. In that case, the side of the coin 16 facing the arm 22 may be 
momentarily raised when the arm 22 sweeps across the surface 18 and the 
coin 16 may then ride over the arm 22. As a result, the coin 16 is not 
moved a sufficient distance by the arm 22 to reach the dispensing area 14 
and no coin is dispensed. Thus, reliable coin dispensing may only be 
achieved by setting the predetermined period of time between the release 
of the coin 16 and the actuation of the arm 22 to be sufficiently long 
that the coin 16 is certain to be at rest. This limits the rate at which 
coins may be dispensed to about one per second. 
FIG. 5 shows a strip 24 arranged on the surface 18. The strip 24 is 
positioned within the area of the surface 18 onto which the coin 16 is 
dispensed so that the coin 16 rolls onto the strip 24. The coin rolls 
round on its corner 20, onto the strip 24 and the rolling action of the 
coin 16 is disturbed, so that the coin 16 rapidly comes to rest. 
It is believed that the effect of the strip 24 on the coin 16 can be 
represented by a substantially vertical force F exerted at point 26 at 
which the corner 20 of the coin 16 encounters the strip 24. The force F 
acts to lift one side of the coin 16 thereby transferring the kinetic 
energy of rolling of the coin 16 into potential energy. Thus, the rolling 
motion of the coin 16 is rapidly damped. 
There may be contemplated alternatives to the strip 24 within the scope of 
the present invention. For example, as shown in FIG. 6a) the strip 24 may 
be replaced by a pair of projecting studs 24' arranged to contact a chord 
of the coin 16. In that case, a face rather than a corner of the coin 16 
encounters one of the studs 24', but the effect is still to lift one end 
of the coin 16 and to interrupt its rolling motion. 
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6b), there may be added to the strip 24 a 
branch portion 24a extending from strip 24 at right angles in plan view, 
to form a "T"-shaped projecting portion. 
As another alternative, the branch portion 24a) may extend from one end of 
the strip 24, to form an "L"-shaped projecting portion, as shown in FIG. 
6c). The branch portion 24a) further interrupts the rolling motion of the 
coin 16. 
As a variant to FIG. 6c), the "L"-shaped projecting portion may be rotated 
so that the junction of the branch portion 24a) and the strip 24 points 
away from the scavenger arm 22, in the form of an inverted "V". 
The leading edge of the scavenger arm 22 may be shaped to conform with the 
projecting portion 24. For example, the leading edge of the scavenger arm 
22 may include a notch to cooperate with the branch portion 24a). 
Additionally, in the case that the arm 22 pivots along the surface 18, the 
branch portion 24a) and the notch may be curved. 
The profile of the strip 24 is shown in FIG. 5 as a trapezium, but may 
alternatively be triangular or semi-circular, for example. These 
alternative profiles reduce the risk of the coin 16 balancing on the top 
surface of the strip 24 when the coin is pushed over the strip 24 by the 
arm 22. The height of the strip 24 must be sufficiently low to allow the 
coin to be pushed easily over the strip 24, but sufficiently high to 
disturb the rolling motion of the coin 16. In one embodiment, the height 
of the strip 24 was 0.5 mm. Preferably, the height of the strip is between 
approximately 0.3 mm and 2 mm. 
The arm 22 may be higher than the strip 24 and may include a portion which 
overlaps the top of the strip 24 to ensure that the coin 16 has been 
pushed over the strip 24. 
The strip 24 may advantageously be formed of a plastics material to 
facilitate bonding to surface 18, which is normally of a plastics 
material. Thus, the strip 24 may easily be added to existing coin 
dispensers. Alternatively, the strip 24 may be made of a shock-absorbing 
material such as ceramic or steel, in order to absorb the energy of impact 
of the coin 16 and further assist damping. For ease of manufacture, the 
strip 24 may alternatively be formed integrally with the surface 18. 
The coin 16 rapidly comes to rest with one side raised and resting on the 
strip 24 and the other side facing the arm 22 resting on the surface 18. 
Thus, the coin 16 is reliably contacted by the arm 22 and pushed over the 
strip 24 into the dispensing area 14. Thus, reliable and swift coin 
dispensing is achieved. In one embodiment of the present invention, coins 
were dispensed at a rate of three per second. 
Although in the preferred illustrated embodiments the raised portion is 
directly below the position of the coin when it is released and dropped, 
this is not absolutely essential; the coin could instead be released onto 
a short ramp leading to the raised portion, for example. 
The specific embodiments of the present invention are described above with 
reference to a coin. However, in this context it will be appreciated that 
the term "coin" includes within its scope articles such as tokens which 
are automatically dispensed and which are susceptible to circular rolling 
motion similar to that of coins.