Coin Roulette

I'm a college student and I have to wait for long periods of time in between classes and for the bus ride back home. One day I decided to buy a drink from a vending machine and it turns out the drink was out of order so I got my change back. I always look at my change just in case I find a coin I want. I noticed that the coins I received were different from the ones I spent...

This got me thinking. I decided to put random coins and just press the "return change" button. Most of the time I would get different coins. Turns out I could do this over and over until I got a coin I wanted, and the best part is that each vending machine has different coins in them generally. It became a game to me so I named it "Coin Roulette."

There are some setbacks to the game though:

- Some vending machine may malfunction and take your change, which is a hassle
- A lot of vending machines have a pretty limited amount of change in circulation, so often you will get the same coin(s) every once in a while.
-It can be tiresome after a while repeating the same task over and over again (you know, inserting coins and pressing the button to get your change back...rinse, wash, repeat...
-Vending machines automatically give a coin back of a larger denomination equal to many smaller valued coins you've inserted (for example, if you put 3 dimes in, you'll always get back 1 quarter and 1 nickel, which isn't good if you're specifically trying to go for dimes that you want. Same goes for if you were to put in 2 nickels, you will get 1 dime).
-Never put the amount of change in that equals the price of a snack/drink. For some reason, on many occasions, the machine won't give your change back and you have no choice but to buy something.
-Vending machines never take pennies so you obviously can't shoot for any lucrative pennies at all. Nickels, dimes, and quarters only.
-You can get weird looks from others sometimes. Also, you may get interrupted when people need to buy something from a vending machine you're using.
-Worst of all, vending machines just don't yield very good rewards very often. However, that doesn't mean that you won't get anything good at all...

Even though there are much better ways of getting coins, it's still a fun little game to play from time to time. The suspense of not knowing what you're going to get is what's really exciting about it. Best of all, you can do this with any vending machine at anywhere and anytime.

As for my rewards, the best I've ever gotten was a 1965 dime and 1968 S-mint nickel that looks almost new, and a Buffalo nickel (I'm not kidding). When I got that Buffalo nickel randomly that made my week. I don't what are the chances of that. The only bad this is that it is very faded, to the point to where it is dateless, which is pretty common for that coin when in heavy circulation. Still, It's really cool. Still haven't gotten any silver dimes or quarters though. Those are so hard (I keep getting 1965 dimes and quarters. That date makes me so mad:headbang.

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mmhmm

yeah I've done that sometimes when I have spare time at work, if you want to put together an AU set of moderns for face it's an okay method...I usually just do it to swap nickels and dimes for quarters, less hassle rolling and standing in line at the bank. I dump my junk pennies at the gas station. I just roll em up, and when I get gas I prepay something like 20.50 and just give em a 20 and the roll of pennies. No one has given me any problems over this. For some reason I get the best change from fast food restaurants...some of my best coins have come from taco bell and mcdonalds...which is a shame, because in general I do not purchase/eat alot of that kind of stuff.

Vending slots (as I call it) is a waste of time way to enjoy the hobby, but sometimes you just need to waste some time. Any time someone bugs me about it I just say I'm putting together a statehood quarter collection, and that shuts them up. Good luck finding any silver, that would be a tremendous amount of luck...of course sometimes for luck to happen you must place yourself in lucks path. Vending slots is also an excellent way to improve your grading eye, as you want to assess the coins in question very quickly.

 

Welcome to the neighborhood!

It sounds interesting, but much more time-consuming than just going to a bank and buying a few rolls or even a box of dimes, nickels, quarters or whatever. You're still getting them for face value.

Here's a little something in your honor.

Chris

 

Used to

I never thought about it in these terms before.

But used to always slip a $20 into the USPS vending machines when buying stamps to get the SBA's & Sac's in change.

Bummer now that all the local Post Offices require Plastic Payment. It takes the thrill out of getting a surprise fist-full of Jingle back.

 

I agree... there are WAY too many 65's...
I got five of them today... along with a nice '67 dime,'64 nickel, a '67 and a '69 quarter, two bicentennial quarters,a couple others for my whitman folder, my first "America the beautiful" quarter, and then...
a shockingly good condition 1967 quarter
best condition coin I have found from 1990 or earlier
Who would put that in a vending machine?

 

Here's lookin' at you kid.....

 

Funny - never really tried it. BUT I do not pay for anything with exact change and I almost always try to make sure I get pennies in the change. It also kind of irks me when they round my change up - if it comes to 1.86 they give me a 1.90.

 

I've tried that before. Best I ever found was a 2003 Illinois proof. Also filled up a few holes in the state quarter album from there. Occasionally, I'll find a bicentennial, but nothing better than that.

 

I hate it when you would have gotten 97 cents so you can look through a fistful of change, but you get a dllar bill...
Not nearly as fun to look through...

 

There was a post on here a few months ago about someone's daughter who got a barber quarter or something like that back in change from a vending machine.

http://www.cointalk.com/t126229/

 

Man... I wish I could find something like that...

 

Got a 1975s dime today.
My first proof find in circulation!
Also got a 1941 nickel

 

Where? Vending machine?

 

Yep.

 

When something costs, let's say, $1.25 in a vending machine, I'll put in a $1.30 to get some change back, because, just as the Mega Millions lottery motto states, "Hey, you never know."

 

My local auto car wash gives dollar coins. This is how I am filling my Presidential folder. Drop a $20 in, get a $5 carwash, keep what I need and spend the rest. I have a ton of fun spending them and seeing the reactions, too. Good idea on the vending machine, I'll have to play on the work soda and snack machines soon.

 

Never happens to me.
The machines I've seen never "Force" you to buy something.
I could put in $1.50 when the most expensive item in the machine is $1.25, and it will still give me my money back.

 

Sounds like guys are having alot of fun with this.I like to buy rolls from the draws of cashiers.I always say can I have that roll instead of the bills, depending on how much change Im getting back.:hail:

 

I've talked with the vendor who refills the machines at my workplace. He had told me that because their machine "holds" your change temporarily until you either make a purchase or get change back that if the machine is out of change it will require a purchase.

I am not sure how true this is or not

 

An interesting game that I, too, must admit that I have played when I've had nothing more than a few coins, some time to kill and it just so happened that I was within the proximity of a vending machine.

A few tips if I may...

1) Basically, use 1 coin at a time. Don't put in 2 quarters, just use 1. The extra change actually increases the chances of you getting different kinds (denominations) of coins back from the coin return.

2) If you want to try for a specific type of coin, a nickel for instance, then just put in a nickel and immediately hit the coin return after the coin has deposited. If you don't like it, you just repeat.

3) Keep repeating until you get back to your original coin and then you will have searched the entire change contents.

and here I thought I was nuts for playing this game. Seems I am not as abnormal as I had first thought.