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What it appears like to me, and yes, showing my age here, when I was growing up bars and pool halls would paint their coins. Usually in heavy laquer. Not exactly sure why though, never asked. Just remember seeing a lot of dark green quarters, dimes and nickels.
Such establishments would often paint coins as "house money". It was usually red, but no doubt there were variations. The idea was that the establishment could put house money into the juke box (or give house money to a favored patron to use) and could then determine how much actual profit there was from the vending machines. There were other uses as well, such as detecting pilfering of the coin box at a remote location.