hi guys! i went vending machine coin hunting tuesday and had some great results! i started with quarters, and got nothing then went to dimes. didn't find anything in dimes, so i tried nickels. i put a regular nickel in, pushed the coin retun button and you get a differnt coin every time. so i put a new nickel in, pushed the slot and got a 1962 nickel! this took a few times of coarse to get this. then i put another nickel in, hit the coin return button and it gave me a brand new 2007 nickel! you guys should try this, its really fun. i will post pictures of the coins when i get home from school. i do it every time i see a machine. you just never know what your going to find. i've heard of people doing this and getting really old coins out of these! just another way to get old coins at face value!
I've filled 3 Whitman state quarter folders, both P & D mints, by doing that. It takes some patience but it is kinda fun. Oh yeah, I also found an old beat up barely readable 1936 quarter!
I hope you realize that you're making the machines run out of change sooner, and making more work for the poor guy who has to unload/load the coins.
FlyingMoose, I'm not make the "machine run out of change sooner", just exchanging. Putting in 1992 quarter, hit coin return, and get a state quarter.
oh well, the machines i do these on are soda machines and the prices are generraly $1 to $1.25. i search the nickles because i don't think anyone is going to get a nickel back in change when buying a soda, just quarters. anyway, the machine people get paid to do that, so why not? all they have to do is just put the nickels back in the tubes. i bet the machine people wonder how all the nickels got in the coin box! in a vending machine, there are 2 coin slots. there is a box that holds coins customers put in and a tube that the vender fills with coins to give back as change. when the machine maintainer fills the machine, he or she will put the coins in the coin box in the tubes, so they will probaly be full again in no time. i heard somewhere that those machines hold $20 in nickels, so its not like a few nickels are going to make a difference. i don't do it with quarters because those are given out as change and if they run out, someone will get ripped off. i just think it is a good way to get old coins. you never know what your going to find! even THAT gives me a thrill!
Yea, I could do it all day. Every day I sit near a Gatorade machine at lunch, so I get to try a few times.
I should try that sometime. So all you do its put a quarter/nickel/dime in and then push the reject slot? Thats a pretty neat idea!
yep, thats all you do. just walk up to a machine, put in the nickel,dime,or quarter in the coin slot, wait untill it says the amount taken, and then push the coin out, coin return button. i did that at a church tuesday night. i like to do this on machines where no one is around to see you or needs to use the machine. i do this sometimes when i have extra change in my pocket and buy from a machine. the coins that go out as change are the coins that people put in, then the machine owner puts those coins into the change tubes. i always like to try it with nickels because those produce more keepers than quarters and dimes. machines really don't accept silver coins, so i doubt that there would be silver in the machine. i showed my friend this because he is just starting o collect coins. when i showed him this, he traded his state quarters for the eagle quarters. he got a bicentinal his third quarter he put in. i tried dimes and quarters, but only got P and D clad. you never know, proofs are everywhere. nickels are really fun to try because they were not made of silver and even the old nickels are accepted by the machines.
Don't feel guilty. I have several vending machines and nearly all machines use the same style changer mechs. The coins the customers put in do go in the change tubes until they are full and only after they are full do they drop in the cash box. On occasion a tube may run out, but usually coins in exceed coins out so manually filling is the exception and not the norm.
What machines work? I put a quarter in a Coke machine at Walmart and it kept my money. What machines work the best? Thanks!!
At my old school I know some kids got desperate when they wanted a soda, and would use old quarters and nickels. Of course, I wasn't into coin collecting yet, (about this year is when I really got into it) so I didn't care. Now I'm kicking myself. I'm going to have to try that out. Nice finds by the way. Phoenix
if you put in 50 cents and pressed the return and the machine had a half dollar would it give it to you?
I don't think they take halves. Could be wrong though. I know that some machines take dollar coins though. Phoenix