Hello all,
I have never used a coinstar or similar machine.
I understand they are for taking your coins and exchanging them for coupons or bills or a free ride etc or whatever it is programmed to do.
But there is a big question I have: how in the world can you get money out of these machines? especially in quite large amounts
I can see that coins are electronically and by weight etc evaluated and if they do not fall within the specs, they will be ejected.
But... there are handfuls .....
For the most part, the coin counter has some kind of internal wheel which sorts the coins, and it is possible to "overload" this wheel (some machines have a "gate" mechanism that will shut if the wheel is overloaded, and stays shut until the volume of coins inside goes down). The excess off this wheel will go into the reject slot (so the machine does not jam) and I believe this is how most coins end up in the reject slot.
Of course, some older coins have circulated so long that they are a bit underweight, and these are rejected too.
But there is nothing wrong with most of the coins in the reject slot, it is just something inherent in the sorting mechanism.
@BillDugan1959 said:
For the most part, the coin counter has some kind of internal wheel which sorts the coins, and it is possible to "overload" this wheel (some machines have a "gate" mechanism that will shut if the wheel is overloaded, and stays shut until the volume of coins inside goes down). The excess off this wheel will go into the reject slot (so the machine does not jam) and I believe this is how most coins end up in the reject slot.
I had one machine reject over a hundred quarters. Feeding those back through the machine would take a percentage of it, and reject others again. Those same quarters were taken without question by another machine. I suspect some garbage got stuck up in one of the mechanisms that validates the coin and caused an abnormal rejection of coins. I stopped using the suspect machine.
I found I can dump about $40-$50 in quarters into the machine before the gate locks, and it handles the coins just fine. (I laugh when the screen says, "My, you have a lot of coins." I mean, that's why I'm there...)
For the speed the machines counts the coins, they are very accurate. If I dump $300 of change into the hopper, it will count to exactly $300.
With my own small bags of coins, I just clean out the reject slot and re-run it. I never seem to have more than four or five coins that won't go through.
I do trust that the machines are pretty accurate; when I do know the face amount of a load of coins, I always get very very close to my expectation.
Since my State has a department that regularly inspects and licenses public scales for food sales, and gasoline pumps too (and charges an annual license tax), I almost wonder how these public coin counters have stayed out of that?
@BillDugan1959 said:
With my own small bags of coins, I just clean out the reject slot and re-run it. I never seem to have more than four or five coins that won't go through.
I do the same thing. Of the "four or five" for me that don't go through, almost all are regular US modern coins that are mutilated, covered with a foreign substance, etc., because I'm pretty in tune with not running silver, 95% copper, foreign, etc. I just put them in the car tray and spend them at drive-thrus. Interestingly, I once put through a partial roll of one of the S-mint America the Beautiful quarters that my then three-year old had accidentally "circulated" for me, and it rejected a bunch of them for some unknown reason.
Coinstar machines regularly reject silver coins (i.e. quarters and dimes)....and even Wheaties occasionally. Most of the time the rejects are either foreign coins or modern coins due to overload or damage... And for some reason, many people just leave the rejects in the reject bin. Cheers, RickO
The local supermarket Coinstar paid off again today. No silver, but 22c in play money + one US dime + a few foreign coins including a 1956 Mexico 20c in decent shape... not a bad haul, actually.
Nice grabs everyone! My last find a few weeks ago were modern Canadian, and an Israeli shekel...missed out on one occasion awhile ago because there were people who knew me around the Coinstar that were waiting in line at customer service...so I passed...."Coinstar complex" moment of sorts. I haven't found enough silver yet to have no shame
@mvs7 .... Nice finds... I like the fish coin... I think it is Danish... I have not found anything for a couple of weeks... Well, next month there will likely be a lot of coin jars cashed in - holiday money. Cheers, RickO
@ricko said: @mvs7 .... Nice finds... I like the fish coin... I think it is Danish... I have not found anything for a couple of weeks... Well, next month there will likely be a lot of coin jars cashed in - holiday money. Cheers, RickO
Good luck finding some holiday cash . The fish coin is cool... the back identifies it as a 1995 Iceland 100 Kronur. I don't want to "fish" it out to take another photo, so here's a Googled image of the design type:
@PocketArt said:
missed out on one occasion awhile ago because there were people who knew me around the Coinstar that were waiting in line at customer service...so I passed...."Coinstar complex" moment of sorts.
That's where having a trained five-year old comes in handy
@ricko said: @mvs7... Thanks for the picture... I forgot that Iceland uses the Kr symbol also.. in Denmark it is Krone...Cheers, RickO
Yep, and you also have Greenland using Kr(one) as an autonomous region of Denmark. Here's one of my favorite Greenland coins (minted at the US Philadelphia Mint):
@TwoSides2aCoin...It is always worth a look.... the real test comes when you see coins in there... Do you walk or scoop them?? Will power vs. won't power.... Cheers, RickO
I've found a cent or Canadian coin here or there the last few days and one handful of regular change I dropped in the Salvation Army kettle but nothing numismatic this week.
Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
@ricman said:
$1.92 US coins in local grocery store - no silver. Strange rejects as all coins were w/o problems.
If people cram coins in the machine it will spit them out. I've actually come across reject slots that were spilled out onto the ground in front of the machine(person depositing must have been out of it or something)
Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
Would not it be great to somehow divert the reject chute, to be picked up later by oneself. Perhaps to a 5 gallon bucket behind/beside the machine. Kind of like a credit card skimmer I guess. Would just be interesting to see what the actual volume of coins would be. Just a rambling thought.
After ages reading this thread and checking the local Safeway Coinstar machine, today, I finally got one coin.
It was a new Jeff nickel with a bit of tar, large enough to get ejected.
Fairly exciting I guess, as my lifelong Coinstar 000% average was getting a little old (and expected).
Much different than when I was a kid.
The coin returns at the huge bank of newspaper machines at Ken’s House Of Pancakes very often paid for the morning’s German Pancake.
The search continues.
$1 CDN in 25c coins in one machine. Then another store there was nothing in the reject slot so I looked under the machine and VOILA there it was hiding for me:
a solitary 1947 Roosie dime.
Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
I neglected to post the last find.... about three days ago... three dimes, six cents (no silver or wheaties) a Canadian nickel and a one pound British coin. Things are looking up, people must be cashing in their coin jars for the holidays... Cheers, RickO
You US guys must have these "free money-giving" machines everyyyyyyywhere.
I have so far only seen one in a very large store located in Courtenay -BC on Vancouver Island.
Comments
My local machine has been empty for the past two weeks.... someone is beating me to the reject slot...
Cheers, RickO
Hello all,
I have never used a coinstar or similar machine.
I understand they are for taking your coins and exchanging them for coupons or bills or a free ride etc or whatever it is programmed to do.
But there is a big question I have:
how in the world can you get money out of these machines? especially in quite large amounts
I can see that coins are electronically and by weight etc evaluated and if they do not fall within the specs, they will be ejected.
But... there are handfuls .....
@YQQ
My surmise from experience and my conjecture:
For the most part, the coin counter has some kind of internal wheel which sorts the coins, and it is possible to "overload" this wheel (some machines have a "gate" mechanism that will shut if the wheel is overloaded, and stays shut until the volume of coins inside goes down). The excess off this wheel will go into the reject slot (so the machine does not jam) and I believe this is how most coins end up in the reject slot.
Of course, some older coins have circulated so long that they are a bit underweight, and these are rejected too.
But there is nothing wrong with most of the coins in the reject slot, it is just something inherent in the sorting mechanism.
Thanks Bill, makes sense.
But who these rejected coins then belong to?
I think you need to stash a nanny cam with overwatch on this place to see what the heck is going on.
The best I've done was find a Canadian quarter. I mean, it wasn't even a real quarter...
Does anyone else think Coinstar should offer e-gift certificates for the US Mint? It only seems appropriate...
I had one machine reject over a hundred quarters. Feeding those back through the machine would take a percentage of it, and reject others again. Those same quarters were taken without question by another machine. I suspect some garbage got stuck up in one of the mechanisms that validates the coin and caused an abnormal rejection of coins. I stopped using the suspect machine.
I found I can dump about $40-$50 in quarters into the machine before the gate locks, and it handles the coins just fine. (I laugh when the screen says, "My, you have a lot of coins." I mean, that's why I'm there...)
For the speed the machines counts the coins, they are very accurate. If I dump $300 of change into the hopper, it will count to exactly $300.
With my own small bags of coins, I just clean out the reject slot and re-run it. I never seem to have more than four or five coins that won't go through.
I do trust that the machines are pretty accurate; when I do know the face amount of a load of coins, I always get very very close to my expectation.
Since my State has a department that regularly inspects and licenses public scales for food sales, and gasoline pumps too (and charges an annual license tax), I almost wonder how these public coin counters have stayed out of that?
I found around $2.00 in US modern coins this morning.
All US coins, no foreign or tokens.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
I do the same thing. Of the "four or five" for me that don't go through, almost all are regular US modern coins that are mutilated, covered with a foreign substance, etc., because I'm pretty in tune with not running silver, 95% copper, foreign, etc. I just put them in the car tray and spend them at drive-thrus. Interestingly, I once put through a partial roll of one of the S-mint America the Beautiful quarters that my then three-year old had accidentally "circulated" for me, and it rejected a bunch of them for some unknown reason.
A French 20 cts dated 1980.
Coinstar machines regularly reject silver coins (i.e. quarters and dimes)....and even Wheaties occasionally. Most of the time the rejects are either foreign coins or modern coins due to overload or damage... And for some reason, many people just leave the rejects in the reject bin. Cheers, RickO
Finally!
POST NUBILA PHOEBUS / AFTER CLOUDS, SUN
Love for Music / Collector of Dreck
The local supermarket Coinstar paid off again today. No silver, but 22c in play money + one US dime + a few foreign coins including a 1956 Mexico 20c in decent shape... not a bad haul, actually.
Nice grabs everyone! My last find a few weeks ago were modern Canadian, and an Israeli shekel...missed out on one occasion awhile ago because there were people who knew me around the Coinstar that were waiting in line at customer service...so I passed...."Coinstar complex" moment of sorts. I haven't found enough silver yet to have no shame
@mvs7 .... Nice finds... I like the fish coin... I think it is Danish... I have not found anything for a couple of weeks... Well, next month there will likely be a lot of coin jars cashed in - holiday money. Cheers, RickO
Good luck finding some holiday cash
. The fish coin is cool... the back identifies it as a 1995 Iceland 100 Kronur. I don't want to "fish" it out to take another photo, so here's a Googled image of the design type:
@mvs7... Thanks for the picture... I forgot that Iceland uses the Kr symbol also.. in Denmark it is Krone...Cheers, RickO
That's where having a trained five-year old comes in handy
Yep, and you also have Greenland using Kr(one) as an autonomous region of Denmark. Here's one of my favorite Greenland coins (minted at the US Philadelphia Mint):
Went by a coin star machine the other day, and thought of you guys. I just cannot bring myself to looking.
It doesn't hurt to look @TwoSides2aCoin
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
@TwoSides2aCoin...It is always worth a look.... the real test comes when you see coins in there... Do you walk or scoop them?? Will power vs. won't power....
Cheers, RickO
$1.92 US coins in local grocery store - no silver. Strange rejects as all coins were w/o problems.
Me too. Nothing for months.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Consecutive day Coinstar finds: $1.92 yesterday (as posted above) and a lone Jefferson today.
@ricman.... You are doing well... as a couple others have posted, I am still in a drought....long one this time. Cheers, RickO
I've found a cent or Canadian coin here or there the last few days and one handful of regular change I dropped in the Salvation Army kettle but nothing numismatic this week.
If people cram coins in the machine it will spit them out. I've actually come across reject slots that were spilled out onto the ground in front of the machine(person depositing must have been out of it or something)
Still nothing... even stopped and put my hand in the slot to be sure my eyes were not missing something...
Cheers, RickO
I found a 1963 Washington quarter yesterday in the coin star reject tray at Walmart!
Successful transactions with: Outhaul, Saen78, Pocketpiececommems, mapleman, CelinaCoin, tommyrusty7, braddick, greencopper, CommemDude
Would not it be great to somehow divert the reject chute, to be picked up later by oneself. Perhaps to a 5 gallon bucket behind/beside the machine. Kind of like a credit card skimmer I guess. Would just be interesting to see what the actual volume of coins would be. Just a rambling thought.
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
I have been told that the internal reject container is always full..... not sure what the machine attendants do with those coins. Cheers, RickO
The large coin caught my eye.
On Tuesday the local machine had about $1.50 in modern US change along with a 1964 dime.
Some of the coins had something gooey on them.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
I have no shame in looking.......just haven't found anything in a LONG time.
I suspect the employees regularly check them
. I know I would.
@Tomthemailcarrier.... That Irish coin is nice ... I have a few of them... Cheers, RickO
Today about 12 cents in the coin machine, but one is a 1929 and the other is a 1941 - the rest into the kettle.
Yesterday, a silver 1958 dime..... Yippeee... drought is over ... Cheers, RickO
Nice! About time
After ages reading this thread and checking the local Safeway Coinstar machine, today, I finally got one coin.
It was a new Jeff nickel with a bit of tar, large enough to get ejected.
Fairly exciting I guess, as my lifelong Coinstar 000% average was getting a little old (and expected).
Much different than when I was a kid.
The coin returns at the huge bank of newspaper machines at Ken’s House Of Pancakes very often paid for the morning’s German Pancake.
The search continues.
$1 CDN in 25c coins in one machine. Then another store there was nothing in the reject slot so I looked under the machine and VOILA there it was hiding for me:
a solitary 1947 Roosie dime.
Stopped by the local Coinstar machine this morning and saw something bright brass in the reject bin.
It was a Japan 5 yen Heisei year 10 (1998)
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
I finally saw a penny in the reject slot at the end of the checkout line at our local grocery store. Couldn't make myself grab it!
Heads up Lincoln in the parking lot, Mexico 50c in he coinstar inside.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
@amwldcoin
Where is the store, I will go grab it
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
I neglected to post the last find.... about three days ago... three dimes, six cents (no silver or wheaties) a Canadian nickel and a one pound British coin. Things are looking up, people must be cashing in their coin jars for the holidays... Cheers, RickO
Unusual coinstar dry-spell here in flyover country.
You US guys must have these "free money-giving" machines everyyyyyyywhere.
I have so far only seen one in a very large store located in Courtenay -BC on Vancouver Island.