Coin mechanisms - unusual kinds, and the defeating thereof...

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Coin mechanisms - unusual kinds, and the defeating thereof...

A previous post about nickel coin mechs got me thinking. I've seen lots of coin acceptors - nickel, dime, quarter, various tokens, Susan B Anthony, etc. But what about penny mechs? Did they ever exist? Aside from some really early gumball machines, did anything ever take them? What about fifty-cent piece mechanisms? Sure, I've seen some large multi-denomiation jukebox mechs that take them, but what about your standard video game clip-in coin mech?

And tokens. I've seen several coin mechanisms that take both .984 tokens AND quarters. But what about .900 tokens and quarters? I'd actually really like to have my games able to take tokens as well, but .984's don't fit through the door of Midway games. If I could get ahold of a bunch of .900/quarter mechanisms, that would be awesome.


And while we're on the subject, how many of you guys tried the various tricks back in the arcade to get free games? Come on, admit it - I'm sure the statute of limitations on defrauding Pac-Man has run out...

I remember using the electrical box knock-out discs at Alladin's Castle. They were pretty close to the size of the tokens, but they only worked in a couple of games. Occasionally you could flick a penny just right into some games and get it to work, but it was rare. If you pounded on a nickel with a hammer, it would get thinner and larger - and would pass for a token at Time Out. Too much work though - and we sure as hell didn't want to get caught! Never tried the coin-on-a-string for the same reason. The "cheating" game was always more of a fascination - I was brave enough to try to get it to work once, but I guess the point for me was never actually to cheat anything... I just wanted to try to get it to work.

There was one arcade that had tokens that were almost exactly the size of nickels - but they had a groove in them, and you had to line them up with a protruding tab in the coin entry plate to insert them. I forget what arcade it was, but I remember finding one or two games that didn't have that protrusion, and yes, nickels worked fine.

I also remember cheating gumball machines on rare occasion - if you took the plastic top from a soda bottle, and cut the sides off so you were left with a plastic disc, it would work in a gumball machine.

Now that I own my own games, I've played with tricking the coin mechs. The pounded-out nickel trick works in a lot of mechs as a quarter. If you shove a drinking straw into the hinge of a Nintendo coin door, it'll fold over and you can hit the coin switch with it. I still want to try the string on a quarter trick on one of my machines. I remember people talking about doing it, and I always wanted to try.

-Ian
 
I don't know if any others did it, and if it was a national chain, but there was a Fun Factory not too far from me that had those slotted tokens. As to the quarter-stringing strategy, some coin mechs have a string cutter in them that slices the string if you tug on it.
 
I found these jammed in my coin mechs today.

Any ideas what they are?View attachment 221210

I've seen these used for restroom locks, turnstiles, and hotel room minibars before. They're available in different groove patterns to prevent them being used in areas they weren't issued for. Google for 'grooved tokens' and you should get a ton of info.
 
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I remember "Fun Factory" having the grooved tokens. They had their name printed on them though. I have four of them I found at my parents house recently. I'll see if I can dig them up for a picture. My older brother insisted they were his, like he was the only one who played games when we were kids. Well, they are mine now. I still remember the radio ads "Good times begin, at the Fun Factory!" When it comes to cheating the games, I remember when I was real young, some older guys at a local dive restaurant would slam a ketchup bottle in the middle of the coin door on a Pac Man to get credits. I guess they hit it just right not to activate the slam switch. Then they would sell you two games for a quarter. I don't think they got rich doing this...
 
I had a "master" coin mech in a Rowe coin changer, which could handle quarters, half dollars, and non SBA or new dollar coins.

It was an Imonex.

I can't say that I remember a penny mech, but that doesn't mean squat since I'm only in my mid 50's.
 
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