Patent GB-1056684-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to coin separators
Inventor: OKOLISCHAN ANTON
Filed: 1964-02-20
Abstract: 1,056,684. Testing coins. NATIONAL REJECTORS Inc. G.m.b.H. Feb. 20, 1964, No. 7177/64. Headings G4V and G4X. Coins are tested for diameter, thickness, the presence of apertures, weight, ferromagnetic material, and electrical resistivity. The apparatus shown is intended to test a half-dollar. inserted at 188, smaller coins falling between pins 332, 224, and between the arms of a cradle 334, to a funnel leading to a small coin tester. The displacement of pin 332 on lever 330 is limited by adjustable stop 328, so that too large coins are refused, but coins of correct size lodge in cradle 334 pivoted at 316, and counterweighted at 339. As the cradle tilts, it clears a spring feeler 340, which will then enter the aperture of a washer, but will not hold up a coin. The coin is discharged from the cradle and rolls down a runway past a magnet held by bracket 270, which retains ferromagnetic discs, and past opposed spring-biased plungers at 272, which retain a too thick coin, or a coin which is of correct maximum thicknes but not relieved within its rim, as in Specification 952,908. To prevent a retained coin being dislodged by a succeeding coin, lever 320 is arranged to baulk a following coin by its end 322 while a coin is opposite the plungers. A correct coin then drops on to runway 50, 52, 126, the latter part being adjustable to co-operate with a permanent magnet 74 inducing eddy currents in the coin, so that a coin of too low a resistivity will follow trajectory 372 to a coin reject shoot. A string cutter 176 is provided. A correct coin follows trajectory 370 on to runway 54, and thence engages a weight tester, comprising a counterweighted member pivoted at 130, the coin contacting first a pin 164 fixed on the member, then the fingers 176, 178 of a lever pivoted on the member at 166. The cradle tilts and drops the coin towards one side or other of a pivoted counterweighted separator tongue 150, too light coins following path 374 to the reject shoot, and correct coins path 370. Magnet 74 is set above the path of the centre of the coins, so that a small coin will generate small eddy currents, and follow path 372. In a modification, the runway part 126 has a projection at its lower part, so that coins of too high resistivity, -following an acutely curved path to the left of path 370, strike the projection and rebound to join path 372. Alternative weight testers, Figs. 14 and 15 (not shown), comprise a pivoted member with a recess shaped to receive just less than half the coin, and arranged to tilt and discharge the coin on to one or other side of a separator, or a pivoted runway having an undulating surface for slowing the coin, the coin running over or beneath a separator according to the degree of tilt of the runway. The thickness tester, or a further thickness tester, as in Specification 952,908, may be placed just upstream of the weight tester, so that the thickness, and thus the momentum of the coin, as well as its weight, affect the degree of tilt of the weight tester, the pivot of which lies close to an extension of the path of the centre of the coin while on the runway 54. Coins held before reaching runway 50 are cleared manually by a linkage which opens gaps by pivoting one wall of the tester about pin 290, and pushes coins into reject paths, or wipes them from the magnet at 270. The linkage also tilts the weight tester, preferably only if it contains a coin, to discharge the coin into the reject path 374. To prevent joggling of the clearance linkage from allowing a coin held at 272 to pass, a slot thinner than a coin is positioned below the plungers, and on slight pivoting of the wall, a held coin falls into the slot, where it is held until the clearance linkage is fully operated. The weight tester, when holding a light coin, is arranged to obturate the coin path as shown in dotted lines at 176, to prevent a second coin from adding its weight. The ferromagnetic arrester magnet and the eddy current magnet face the same side of the coin, to prevent a ferromagnetic insert on one face of a disc from being spaced from the first magnet, so as to pass it, but adjacent the second, so as to generate adequate eddy currents.