Speaking at the time, Jonathan Hilder warned against the move. He told The Telegraph 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, however, estimated that it would cost the vending industry £42m and the coin industry as a whole a possible £100m - casting serious doubts over the decision when businesses are already fighting to weather the financial storm.

The British Parking Association (BPA) and the Automatic Vending Association (AVA) successfully lobbied for a delay in the introduction of the new coins. They were due to be introduced this Spring, but The Treasury has listened and postponed the introduction of two new 5p and 10p coins from 1 April 2011 to 1 January 2012.

Can you spot a fake?

In a challenging year for the Royal Mint, there were also a number of news stories questioning the state of Britain's coins. 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.

Jonathan Hilder, Chief Executive Officer, Automatic Vending Association (AVA) is keen to put things into perspective: “Despite 2.81% of £1 coins being forgeries, this hasn’t impacted on consumer confidence because they’re so difficult to spot – so confidence in the £1 coin is still high. In fact, when I asked Andrew Mills, Director of Circulating Coin Sales, The Royal Mint, whether he’d pay for a short taxi journey with a £50 note, his response was that it wouldn’t be accepted – they’d accept £1 coins, but not a large denomination note. This just shows where the level of confidence is!”

Keen to offer help and assistance, Jonathan added: “For those of you who want to learn more, Phil Hawkins, Queen’s Assay Master and Head of Operations Support, The Royal Mint will be presenting a seminar on ‘How To Spot A Fake £1 Coin’ at AVEX on Wednesday 15th June. He’ll be giving an update on the current levels and types of £1 counterfeit activity within the UK and tips on how to spot fake £1 coin.”

Keeping one step ahead

Consumers do not usually notice a counterfeit until a vending machine or parking meter rejects it. Steve Priest of AstroSystems explains why: "Both our Microcoin and GBA ranges of currency validation equipment work to the same principles for detection of fraudulent coins and notes. We have an in-house software development team that create software configurations based upon samples of real currency. These are programmed into the acceptor and when a coin or note is inserted, the readings are compared to those stored in memory. The unit then decides if it is real or if it is a possible fraud and acts accordingly."

Steve warned: "Fraudulent coins and notes can appear in circulation at any time, sometimes specific to a regionalised area, and sometimes sporadically. In recent months, the GBA ST1 (note stacker) and ST2 note validator products have been successfully taken through the testing procedure at both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, assuring users of the highest quality acceptance and discrimination."

"With regard to coin acceptors, our Microcoin SP has a unique reject mechanism that will clear virtually all coin and foreign object jams at the push of the reject button, allowing the user to clear any potential jam. This ensures the coin acceptor remains operational for longer, maximising revenue, and preventing the expense of sending a technician to site."

So, how have coin and note handling technologies evolved over the years and what does the future hold? "As technology evolves so do the methods of validation. Whilst criminals get smarter we work towards more advanced methods of discrimination to combat these efforts. We are continually striving to keep ahead of the criminal and abreast with the latest technology. As technology progresses we continue to work closely with the banks to help develop new anti-counterfeit features on bank notes."

Then of course, there are new 5p and 10p coins to contend with. Is AtroSystems prepared? "In preparation for the introduction of the new UK 5p and 10p coins, we have worked with the Royal Mint who have provided us with samples of the new coins to enable us to evaluate the quality of the coins and the to prepare our products to accept them. Both our Microcoin SP and QL products are readily available to accept these new coins which are due into circulation in January 2012, and new Microcoin products are being shipped with the coins pre-programmed."

The cost however, is more difficult to determine says Steve. "We are unable to estimate the immense cost the industry will incur with the introduction of the new 5p and 10p coins. In order to alleviate this cost and in support of our customers, we have taken the decision to offer the new configuration free of charge. For customers who do not have the programming tools available we can offer an upgrade of the software at AstroSystems at a significantly reduced cost. "

Taking the headache out of cash handling

Cummins-Allison has been a leading supplier of cash handling solutions to the Vending Industry for over 20 years. "We have provided fast, efficient and accurate time saving means of processing vending revenue. From our M6400 and M4200 Jetsort coinsorters, sorting at 6000 and 3000 coins per minute respectively, to our most recent M1000, which sorts and batches  ready for banking  for the smaller application, our comprehensive range of cash-processing equipment has enhanced many vending operations nationwide. Our latest Barcode Scanner offers easy data input, and our Jetsort Wedge software enables data to be downloaded into a PC, for further analysis," said a representative.

Tobias Roitsch Marketing Manager for NRI was keen to talk about the company's latest release: "At the moment we are all excited about the changes in the market that we have been able to bring with our currenza c2 airport coin changer." Offering an integrated solution the currenza c2 airport system is the unique alarm and audit solution inside the c2 coin changer providing alarm text messages and digital remote data transmission of vending machine audit data. The hardware is complemented by the different antenna variants, optional back-up battery, back office hardware and free of charge back office software.

Explaining the thinking behind the product, Toby said: "After sitting together with operators at the German vending association meeting I noted that they needed three things: Alarm messages, easy installation and low costs. Operators can easily see the benefits of the system. Since launching the product back in October last year we have been able to sell some thousand units into the European market and have a lot of companies in field trial at the moment."

Coin changes, fake currency - keeping cash under control is a daily challenge, but the vending industry is more than set up to deal with it. Keeping one step ahead with constantly evolving technology, costs are being kept to a minimum without any impact on the service provided.

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