Have vending machines motivated the issue of certain coins?

I was wondering if anyone here knows of a coin (regardless of nation) that the issuing authorities put into circulation based on its need in vending machines, transportation, or payphones?

 

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Interesting muse. It reminded me that as a youngster I wasn’t allowed to leave the house unless I had a dime in my pocket so I could call mom in the event of an emergency..... Hadn’t thought about that for fifty years.

 

I know that the vending industry has a huge lobby concerning changes in our coins. It costs millions every time changes are made that affect the change and bill readers in vending machines, not to mention the banking industry having machines that have to process the new coins or bills.

 

Not put in by the mint, but in there
55 doubled die in vending machines as change


Cigarette vending machines

 

In 1997 New Zealand issued a two dollar coin as it had in past years. Soon after the coin was issued authorities noticed that all 1997 $2 coins were slightly thicker than previous years and were getting jammed in vending machines.

They caught the problem early in it's mintage so very few 1997 NZ$2 coins exist. Only about 4000 business strikes are estimated to have gotten out.

It's not exactly the story you are looking for but I think it's relevant/interesting enough.

 

Right. I've read that the metal composition was always a big to-do. This was because the coins had to pass through the vending machines' inductive sensors (conductivity and magnetic permeability) involving the slug rejectors (aka automatic discriminators).

 

Yes, the 1999 Susan B. Anthony dollar. And all dollar coins since then. Many places, such as self-serve car washes, dispense them as change for use in their machines. My pet peeve is that it was difficult back in the day, and impossible now, to find a vending machine that accepted half dollars.

 

That's funny they didn't even catch that in the DESIGN phase for that $2 dollar coin! I interviewed a South Korean Mint engraver who told me that their country's vending industry would send its machines to them to be tested at the Mint's facilities to make sure the coins would work in them.

 

If you find out that a machine has EVER accepted halves, let me know! I've never read or HEARD of a vending machine that ever has.

Right. How about the Sacagawea? That one, too?

 

The Ike dollar was largely created for the Las Vegas casinos to replace the silver dollars that they had used previously. Until a few years ago when they started moving away from the tokens - they were similar in size to the Ike dollar.

 

I seem to recall an article, not long ago, in one of the hobby magazines (it may have been Coins) that the vending machine companies were griping about Buffalo nickels when the patterns were being tested...so this isn't new.

 

The nickel paid for a lot of things back then - particularly slot machines, peep shows and other forms of vice!

 

Ah. Good one! That's right. They did use Ike dollars, didn't they?

 

Back in the old days, the new presidential dollar was encouraged by the usps stamp vending machines.

These days the only place I’ve seen dollar coins as change in vending machines are the LA Metro ticket stations, and oddly enough, the employee machine at Home Depot

 

I’ve never seen them, I must be too young. I do remember the Ellis Island casino in Vegas using Kennedy halves instead of $0.50 chips

However all the casinos I’ve been to in California have chips for all denominations

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/28/...the-atlantic-city-slots-eisenhower-edges.html

 

A fathomable promise to citizens is even more mind bending than the thickness of the coin itself. I say relevant.

 

Parking meters in new York reject dollar coins randomly. What a cluster Farck. What the He haw hockey sticks are they good for then??? This is a failed compliance IMO. Some soda machines won't accept them or they even sometimes keep them! They say file a complaint or call the vendor. Just my experience. I'll start documenting it now.

 

Interesting story, thanks for the link. I had never heard it before.

 

Yep. "Merchant non-compliance" if you will. Then again, according to the concept of "freedom of contract," a merchant can make his/her sales dependent on certain kinds of payment.

Merchant non-compliance is also the reason why South Korea cannot go "coinless" although that plan was supposed to be in place this year. Businesses simply won't buy the equipment or pay to train their employees in giving customers their change in the form of credits added to their USIM card-enabled smartphones or to saved-value cards.