Patent ID: 6874612

Claim:
A vending machine of a type that accepts payments and returns products or services comprising: an input interface that accepts and processes payments; an output interface that delivers products or services in return for the payments; an uninterrupted supply of media arranged in a succession of units separated by zones of weakness; a media dispenser that dispenses the media units in association with the delivery of the products or services; and a driver within the media dispenser responsive to a registrable feature of the media units for advancing the media units to a dispensing position at which the media units can be manually withdrawn from the vending machine by bursting the zones of weakness, wherein: (a) the succession of media units are preprinted in a variable manner so that printed contents of a plurality of adjacent media units differ from each other, (b) the printed contents of the media units include promotional information, (c) the media units include media units that are redeemable for products or services, and (d) the redeemable media units are redeemable for the products or services delivered by the vending machine.