Check-actuated control mechanisms – Including value accumulator for plural checks – Having solid state circuitry
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-28
2003-03-25
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Check-actuated control mechanisms
Including value accumulator for plural checks
Having solid state circuitry
Reexamination Certificate
active
06536577
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a coin handling method and a device, and more particularly to a coin handling method and a device which can temporarily hold a plurality of coins and return the inserted coins when a return operation is performed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic vending machines are generally provided with a coin handling device for accepting coins and dispensing change.
A conventional coin handling device identifies the inserted coins as authentic or counterfeit and denominations, stores the authentic coins in coin tubes corresponding to respective denominations, and dispenses the coins corresponding to an amount of change to be dispensed. According to the above structure, when the inserted coins are to be returned for some reason, the coins corresponding to the inserted coins are dispensed from the coin tubes. Therefore, the returned coins are the same denominations as those of the inserted coins but not the inserted coins.
Therefore, there are many crimes that counterfeit coins are put into an automatic vending machine and a refund operation is made to get authentic coins. To deal with such crimes, the inserted coins can be closely identified as authentic or counterfeit, but the authentic coins may be identified as counterfeit if they are damaged or contaminated by such close identification, and the use of the vending machines has become inconvenient.
In view of the above circumstances, to prevent the use of counterfeit coins and to secure the convenience, there are used coin handling devices which are provided with a temporarily holding mechanism (escrow mechanism) for temporarily holding (escrowing) the inserted coins and return the actually inserted coins when a refund operation is made.
As described above, there have been used the coin handling devices having the escrow mechanism lately. Meanwhile, the automatic vending machines and the like provided with the coin handling device are increasing to vend high-priced commodity products, and the coin handling device is desired to be able to hold temporarily a plurality of coins for the convenience of the automatic vending machines.
Besides, the coin handling devices having the escrow mechanism may have its operation jammed, an automatic change adjusting function (which keeps the number of coins dispensable as change at a constant level) disabled or the like by the temporarily held coins which are left as they are if the power is cut off due to a power failure or the like and turned on again.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a coin handling method and a device which can prevent functions from being degraded by adoption of an escrow mechanism in order to temporarily hold a plurality of inserted coins to provide convenience and to prevent counterfeit coins from being used and also to provide a normal operation even if any coins are temporarily held at the time when the power is turned on.
In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim
1
is a coin handling method which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding the identified coins of at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, wherein:
the denominations and number of coins to be temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are previously determined; and when coins of the predetermined denominations are inserted in the predetermined number, the inserted coins are returned without being temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim
2
is the invention of claim
1
, wherein the number of coins temporarily held is determined arbitrarily within a range of the temporarily holdable number of coins in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim
3
is the invention of claim
2
, wherein if at least one of the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism is accommodated, coins of the pertinent denomination newly inserted within the range of the predetermined number of coins can be temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim
4
is a coin handling method which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding the identified coins of at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, wherein:
when the accommodation instruction is given, the held coins are selectively sorted and accommodated into a coin box for recovering coins or a coin tube for accommodating coins to be dispensed.
The invention of claim
5
is the invention of claim
4
, wherein the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are sorted to the coin tube if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is less than an allowable number and sorted to the coin box if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is not less than the allowable number.
The invention of claim
6
is the invention of claim
5
, wherein the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are sorted to the coin tube if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is less than a predetermined number and sorted to the coin box if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is not less than the predetermined number.
The invention of claim
7
is the invention of claim
5
, wherein the coins have a plurality of types in the same denomination; and
if the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are those of predetermined types, they are sorted to the coin box regardless of the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube.
The invention of claim
8
is the invention of claim
4
, wherein the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are released and sorted one by one from the held state.
The invention of claim
9
is the invention of claim
4
, wherein when the accommodation instruction is issued about some of the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism, the coins related to the accommodation instruction are accommodated and the other coins are returned.
The invention of claim
10
is the invention of claim
9
, wherein the coins have a plurality of types in the same denomination; and
coins of predetermined types are accommodated with a high priority among the coins of the plurality of types.
The invention of claim
11
is a coin handling method which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding the identified coins of at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, wherein
if a predetermined event takes place, an operation of releasing the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism is performed at least one time.
The invention of claim
12
is the invention of claim
11
, wherein the event is an initializing process including a power turning-on time, and
the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are guided to a coin box for recovering coins by the releasing operation at the initializing process.
The invention of claim
13
is the invention of claim
11
, wherein the event is an inventory operation and guides the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism to a coin tube for acc
Aso Tsunehiro
Ishida Takeshi
Koyama Kenji
Beauchaine Mark J
Kabushiki Kaisha Nippon Conlux
Walsh Donald P.
Welsh & Katz Ltd.
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