Back in July a ‘record’ number of fakes was said to be undermining confidence in our currency, with some even suggesting that the £1 coin be scrapped and re-issued. The upheaval and cost, however, would be huge - with businesses and tax payers footing the bill.

Thankfully the Vending Industry is more than set up to spot a fake, as consumers do not usually notice a counterfeit until a vending machine or parking meter rejects it. Steve Priest of AstroSystems agrees: “During recent times, the quality of frauds has improved significantly, and new advances in note and coin security features have been introduced in currencies across the globe. The GBA and Microcoin product ranges have had technological enhancements over the years in order to make use of such additional features, and will continue to do so in the future.” He adds that the GBA note validator has recently moved to a revolutionary new ‘SenseTechnology’ platform, which acknowledges the requirement to track and deal with the evolution of fraud technology, such as high quality printing and photocopying: “As new technologies are introduced into coin and note design, so the validation technology will continue to evolve in order to capitalise on these new features.”

Talking to The One Show, Jonathan Hilder explained how important it was for the consumer to be confident that his £1 coin would buy him a product, but the recent figure of 2.81% was still well below the recognised 5% threshold for introducing a change. Any new coinage places extra cost on businesses and would represent a £50,000 cost to this site operator, £45 million for the vending industry as a whole, he said.

In a year in which both the Royal Mint and the Treasury have come under scrutiny for the state of Britain’s coins and indeed, its finances, plans for new 5p and 10p coins were also announced. Instead of using the present cupronickel alloy, the new coins will use steel with a nickel coating and be magnetic for the first time. Although at first glance there will not be a great deal of difference, there will be an increase in thickness with the new coins measuring 1.9mm, as opposed to the current 1.7mm. Warning against the move, Jonathan Hilder told The Telegraph earlier this year that all machines would have to have their software updated and in most instances, recalibrated to recognise both the new coins and the old ones, which will continue to be in circulation for at least a decade.

The changing of the metals was brought in as a proposal of the last Labour government, as one of many measures for dealing with the financial crisis. It was suggested that it would save between £7m and £8m a year. Jonathan Hilder, estimates that it would cost the vending industry, however, £42m and the coin industry as a whole possibly £100m - casting serious doubts over the decision when businesses are already fighting to weather the financial storm.

It’s not just businesses that will foot the bill either, also talking to The Telegraph, Manny Rasors at the British Parking Association said that every bit of parking equipment would have to be changed, a ‘considerable investment’ that would have to be met, ultimately, by the tax payer.

Phil Darbyshire of Coin Solutions is positive that his company can cope with the changes. He said: “There has been recent speculation within the industry as to the effect and cost of the proposed new 5p and 10p introduction. First point to clarify is that based on the Royal mints forecasts the new coinage would only represent 5% of the coins in circulation within the first 12 months of introduction,so there is plenty of time to upgrade or replace existing Coin Mechanisms to handle the changes.”

Very well established with a strong foothold in the market, MEI and NRI new products are already being factory programmed for the new coins from October and November 2010 ready for the proposed April 2011 introduction.

Phil continued: “Again the majority of Coin Mechanisms in use today should be upgradable in the field using handheld programming modules. These will be supplied loaded with the relevant coin update files. There is obviously a cost involved in buying these programmers and also credit based licences for each upgrade. However these should work out at less than £10.00 per unit for field upgrades. There is no need to alter the payout tubes making the upgrade easier to manage than for example the last New 50p introduction.

“An added benefit of the upgrade will be coin sets being uploaded will be the latest manufacture coin data including more security against known frauds and previous coin changes such as the Hellenic coins introduced in 2008.

“Although some obsolete products will have to be returned to service centres for upgrade the implementation for the majority of coin handling should be straightforward. Coin Solutions will work with the industry to make this proposed introduction as seamless and cost effective as possible.”

Steve Priest of AstroSystems is equally upbeat: “We are pleased to announce that Microcoin coin validators have already been prepared to accept the new 5p and 10p coins. Updated configurations will be available prior to the release of these new coins in Spring 2011. Due to the change in material used for the new coins, there will be a requirement to reprogram Microcoin product currently in the field.

“For customers with the Microcoin programming tools, new configuration files will be accessible from our website (www.microcoin.com), or directly from our sales office, free of charge. Those without the programming tools will be able to return product to AstroSystems for update.

“Both the Microcoin coin acceptor and GBA note validator ranges employ complex detection and validation techniques. Essentially, valid coins and notes are identified by unique signatures which are stored within the units. Any object which does not match these signatures is rejected.

“However it is not simply false coins and notes that we have to protect against, we also have to ensure that the product can not be defrauded by mechanical or manipulation attempts. The job of fighting frauds is a never ending one, as the technology for creating false currency becomes more powerful and more accessible. Our aim is to always remain one step ahead.

“Our products are used across a myriad of different host machines, from vending to gaming, car wash to kiddie rides. One of the many benefits of the Microcoin and GBA ranges is the reliability of the products and the longevity of them in operation. The products are designed for ease of access and servicing, reducing both downtime and the need for costly technician call outs.”

While both AstroSystems and Coin Solutions are responding well to the changes, it goes without saying that it will be difficult for others to invest in this way and move forward. For them, the real impact remains to be seen.

In other news, Jofemar is celebrating the sale of the 500,000th unit of its best-selling J-2000, the world’s first changegiver for vending machines to include 5 return tubes.

The first prototypes of this model were created in 1997, when most of the coin mechanisms did not offer enough change flexibility for countries where coin payment was more usual than payment by banknotes. The launch of the J2000, capable of handling the refund of up to five different coin values rapidly became the new benchmark in coin mechanisms.

Since then, several versions have been developed to make it compatible with all vending protocols, MDB, Executive, Electromech­anical and BDV. That means it is suitable for almost every machine on the market, enabling them to accept cash and give change.

Its mechanics have not required much alteration since its release, the main change being the creation of an easy change tube cassette, enabling a simpler exchange of the coin tubes. Customers, however, have requested more features, which is why several models have evolved - in Executive mode, a version to control MDB Peripherals for example. Other features include external tube control and telemetry or DEX and EVA/DTS data extractions were incorporated.

The J2000 is perfectly compatible with the Jofemar’s advanced, secure coin validators, where the latest counter fraud technology has always been adopted.

The introduction of the Euro currency across Europe was one of its sterner tests and the J2000 proved itself to be amongst the most useful tools in the vending operator’s armoury. Special dual currency programs were developed to manage the automatic changeover from the old national currency to the Euro. These programmes were able to calculate the exchange rate during the changeover, accepting national currency and giving change in Euros. The national currency taken in was not re-issued, facilitating a gradual change to the new currency.

Today the J-2000 is in use in more than 80 countries, included as standard on all Jofemar machines and it is the changegiver of choice for thousands of operators used in fitting a Coin mech to any kind of vending machine. It allows them to decide on all manner of settings, including refund type, coin acceptance, product discounts and several other features, so the changegiver can be programmed to meet individual site requirements.

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