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 Replies: 11 / Views: 7,615 |
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Valued Member
United States
163 Posts |
What are the best coin sorters you guys know of regardless of price? Has anyone come close to a machine that can sort modern coins by date or even be programmed to sort any group of coins?
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Valued Member
United States
320 Posts |
I don't honestly know... but were I to tackle this, I think I'd think of several machines for a stepped process.
-Coinstar-type machine for the front-end, to sort by denomination and to pick out any foreign coins, slugs, buttons, etc.
-weighing machine to sort out changes within a denomination -- ie things like silver from clad or copper from zinc (I've seen numerous types but they all work on the same basic principle)
From there comes the difficult part. I'd imagine you'd need to roll the coins down a ramp and past a camera, and have the camera take a quick photo of each date and sort from there... seems difficult offhand, but they have the technology already in manufacturing, I was watching a show the other day about a potato chip factory that had a scanner which would pick up on any badly-cooked chips...so that technology could probably be adapted--but it would have to be by someone smarter than yours truly, mind you.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
The most sophisticated coin sorters I know of are 'numismatists'.
Plenty of 'em here in the CCF. I am also fairly efficient at detecting badly cooked chips, and I come cheap!
The major mints around the World have machinery to detect poorly made coins, and there are all sorts of ways of detecting poorly made ones.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the major mint errors that end up on the numismatic market have already been extracted from the production run, and are surreptitiously offered for sale later on, after being secreted out of the mint by less than honest employees, knowing there is a market for mint errors.
About five years ago, a large number of very badly miss struck U.S. coins turned up on the Australian numismatic market. And I have a few.
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
Quote:
I was watching a show the other day about a potato chip factory that had a scanner which would pick up on any badly-cooked chips I seen a show about Uncle Bens rice where they look at every piece of rice before it is packaged so the technology is here but can it be adapted to coins? John1  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
You'd have to define what you want to sort. A machine can sort by weight, size, magnetism, or other properties.
If you're wanting to sort silver from clad or copper from Zincolns, there's a $500 machine (and $40 do-it-yourself mechs), using weight.
Separating Canadian silver from later pure nickel coins (or steel cents from the others) requires nothing more sophisticated than a magnet.
Sorting by size can be done by a $20 set of shaker trays, where each tray has smaller holes, and coins fall through until stopped by a hole smaller than their diameter. Or you can spend five figures on a Cummins JetSort, where a big wheel spins coins past a series of holes. Dimes fit through the first hole, cents through the next, then nickels, etc, at 150 coins a second.
By adjusting the hole size, the machine (tray) can sort any country's coins. Keep in mind, tho, if a dime AGE is the same size as a Zincoln, that's what it will sorted as.
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
Quote:
I have a sneaking suspicion that the major mint errors that end up on the numismatic market have already been extracted from the production run, and are surreptitiously offered for sale later on, after being secreted out of the mint by less than honest employees, knowing there is a market for mint errors. With the exception a couple decades ago where a mint worker took errors out in the oilpan of his tow motor, this isn't likely to happen. Security is tight. A big reason major errors don't get into bank rolls is they have the tendency to jam the equipment. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
There is already on the market the most sophisticated coin sorter, coin appraiser, coin examiner, etc. But they are really, really expensive. To get one the usual process is to get married, have kids, raise them to work with coins and POOF, you now have the best coin counter/sorter/examiner in the world. As to cost, if you want one, the future college costs will stop you in your tracks now.  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
If I recall correctly, PCGS developed a machine to grade Morgans to three decimal places (MS64.468) with fairly high repeatability. Last I heard, they used it for preliminary input, but there are so many "human" factors it couldn't be an independent grader. In order to get a computer to do something, you first have to know what you want it to do. OK, let's start with "define eye appeal".
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote:$0 to $500, mixed change, in one minute flat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33PSr8jB8h4 Fantastic what modern machinery can do. However, I still like my idea better for seveal reasons. 1. The coins still get counted 2. If kids are trained right, possible rare and/or expensive coins can be found cheaply 3. Coins are not banged together making scratches for other coin collectors. 4. Gives your kids something to do rather than sitting in front of a TV or Computer game. 5. Keeps the kids off the streets. And of course if you don't have kids of your own, just borrow someone elses. |
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Valued Member
United States
320 Posts |
Just Carl Must have older kids... mine is 6 months old, if I gave him a coin at this point, odds are he'd eat it... and he already costs enough money!
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Secret Argent Man: You are much closer to the real truth than you may think. This story nearly ended in tragedy for me and my wife:
My son when he was about a year old, playing by himself. Instinctively, a parent of kids that age knows something is wrong when they are very noisy or more subtly, very quiet. I found him sitting in the middle of our living room floor with a pained look of appeal on his face.
I immediately turned him upside down, and slapped him very hard between his shoulder blades. Out popped a coin about the size of a quarter. I very obviously saved his life.
This little story should be a warning for any one who finds kids in this type of situation.
Yeah. And kids just get more expensive the older they get.
Mine are grown up now. Phew! We have all survived!
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Replies: 11 / Views: 7,615 |
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Posted 04/12/2011 06:08 am
