GB738244A - Improvements in or relating to coin separators - Google Patents

Abstract

738,244. Testing and sorting coins in coinfreed apparatus. NATIONAL REJECTORS, Inc. Oct. 19, 1953, No. 28788/53. Class 27. A coin separator tests the weight, diameter, peripheral configuration, thickness and electrical conductivity of coins and is particularly adapted to test a special serrated or toothed coin 104 by means of a toothed runway 22 along which the coin rolls past the field of a permanent magnet 32. Coins inserted at 94 are first tested by spaced lugs on a pivoted counterweighted cradle (not shown) and larger coins of proper weight and size are directed to a runway (not shown) where they are tested for electrical conductivity by a permanent magnet 106. Smaller coins pass through the lugs and are directed by a surface 98 into a passageway between the separator frame 10 and a hinged wall 16, where oversized coins are held up by a projection 19 appropriately spaced from the frame. Below the projection 19, a feeler pin 28 on an elongated spring 26 is pressed aside by a coin of proper weight but if the coin has a hole or pronounced surface deformation the feeler will hold it up. The feeler pin also acts on coins which, while resting at the top of the runway 22 fixed to the hinged wall 16, are too small for their top edge to rest against the top edge of an opening 54 and ejects them to a reject shoot 53. A coin that has passed the initial tests will start rolling down the runway 22 but, if it does not have teeth at its periphery, it will ride on the points of the runway teeth and be held up by the end of a scavenging lever 58 or, if it is too thick, it will not enter the narrow passageway between the frame and the magnet 32. If the coin does not have the correct number of teeth of the correct size and configuration or if it does not have the required electrical conductivity, it will either not roll along the runway or its speed will be such that it will fall, either directly or by rebounding from a stop 101, on to the right hand side 38 of a divider having a hinged part 40 at its apex and thence into a reject shoot 52. The speed of correct coins will be such that they fall to the right of the divider, into an accepted shoot 50. Clearing apparatus. Any coins held up in the separator are cleared by depressing a pressure plate 66 so that the scavenging lever 58 is rotated counter-clockwise by a bar 74 pivoted on the plate, the wall 16 is rotated on its pivot 14 by a lever 84 having a roller 86 bearing on a cam plate 78 on the bar 74 and a wall 92 is rotated on its pivot 90 by a pin 97 on the pressure plate engaging a cam surface 96. Tokens of special form. The special coin 104 has teeth in the form of a gear and is chamfered to prevent the edges of the teeth catching on the upper edge of the opening 54 as the coin rolls along the runway 22. The value represented by the coin may be in excess of the value of coins in general circulation, in order to avoid the necessity. for the insertion of a large number of coins when vending higher-priced articles.