JPH0554229A - Coin discrimination device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To discriminate a forged coin which is difference in the extent of projection formation from a normal coin and to prevent illegal use by providing a means which detects the extent of a projection part formed at the outer peripheral part of the coin. CONSTITUTION:A material sensor 7 consists of a pot type core made of a ferrite material arranged opposite a coin passage 12, a coil wound around in the core, an oscillation circuit formed of the coil, and a half-wave rectifying circuit which converts an oscillation waveform from a sine wave to a signal indicating an oscillation level. A thickness sensor 8 is constituted similarly to the material sensor 7, but a coil wound around an opposite core is connected in series in opposite-phase relation so as to have negative mutual inductance and its output is supplied to a thickness detecting means 10 and an outer peripheral part projection part detecting means 11. For example, the material sensor 7 and thickness sensor 8 serve as a core and are provided as a material and thickness sensor 4. The extent of the formation of the outer peripheral part of the coin is detected with the output generated when the outer peripheral part of the coin passes nearby the sensor 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coin discriminating apparatus for electrically discriminating the authenticity and the type of coins.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, vending machines have come into widespread use, and coin discriminating devices used therein are required to have high discrimination performance.

A conventional coin discriminating device is provided with a material, a thickness, an outer diameter sensor and a means for detecting the maximum change amount of the output of each sensor. The coin change device detects the maximum change amount of the output of each sensor when a coin passes. The material, thickness, and outer diameter were detected for identification.

[0004]

However, in the conventional structure, a fake coin having a material and a thickness similar to that of a true coin, such as a flat plate metal formed by simply punching a metal plate and having substantially the same thickness, is illegally used. There was something.

An object of the present invention is to provide a coin discriminating device capable of preventing such illegal use of counterfeit coins.

[0006]

In order to solve this problem, a coin discriminating apparatus of the present invention comprises means for detecting the degree of a convex portion (hereinafter referred to as coining) formed on the outer peripheral portion of a coin. It was done.

[0007]

With this configuration, since the coining degree of coins can be detected, it is possible to identify a genuine coin and a false coin having a different coining degree, such as a flat plate metal, and prevent illegal use.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the outline of the coin discriminating apparatus according to the present invention. A coin slot 2 is provided at the top of the coin identification device body 1, and a coin passage 3 is connected downward from the slot 2. A material / thickness sensor 4 and an outer diameter sensor 5 are arranged on the side wall of the coin passage 3. The coin passage 3 is connected to a coin outlet 6 located at the bottom of the coin identifying device body 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control circuit. The material sensor 7 is a pot type core made of a ferrite material, which is arranged so as to face the coin passage 3, a coil wound inside the core, an oscillation circuit formed by the coil and an oscillation waveform from a sine wave to an oscillation level. Is composed of a half-wave rectifier circuit that converts the signal into The coils wound around the opposing cores are connected in series and in phase so that the mutual inductance is positive, and the outputs thereof enter the material detecting means 9 and the coining detecting means 11. The thickness sensor 8 has the same configuration as that of the material sensor 7, but the coils wound around the opposing cores are connected in series and in reverse phase so that the mutual inductance becomes negative, and the outputs thereof are the thickness detecting means 10 and the coining detecting means. Enter 11. In this embodiment, the material sensor 7 and the thickness sensor 8 also serve as cores.
It is shown as a sensor 4 for combined use of thickness. Outer diameter sensor 5
Also, the coil has the same structure as the material sensor 7, and the coils are connected in series and in phase to enter the outer diameter detecting means 12.

Each of the detection means 9 to 12 is composed of an A / D conversion circuit and a detection circuit, and the comparison circuit 13 respectively.
Go into ~ 16. The comparison circuits 13 to 16 are also connected to the storage circuit 17. The outputs of the comparison circuits 13 to 16 enter the determination circuit 18, and the determination circuit 18 outputs the determination signal 19.

The operation of the coin discriminating apparatus constructed as above will be described. When a coin inserted from the coin insertion slot 2 approaches the sensor, the impedance of the coil changes and the oscillation level of the oscillation circuit changes accordingly. The amount of change is formed so that the material sensor 7 mainly changes the coin material, the thickness sensor 8 mainly changes the coin thickness, and the outer diameter sensor 5 changes mainly depending on the outer diameter of the coin. The material detecting means 9, the thickness detecting means 10, and the outer diameter detecting means 12 detect the maximum change amount of the oscillation level when the coin passes, and output it to the corresponding comparator circuits 13, 14, 16 respectively.

Next, the operation of the coining detecting means 11 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 shows output waveforms 20 and 30 of the thickness sensor 8 when a coin passes, and FIG. 2 shows an output waveform 40 of the material sensor 7. In each case, the vertical axis is the amount of change in the oscillation level, and the horizontal axis is the time. The solid line in FIG. 1 is a waveform 20 of a Japanese 500-yen coin, and the broken line is a flat-plate metal waveform 30 whose material, thickness, and outer diameter are almost the same as those of a 500-yen coin. The part where the output of the thickness sensor 8 differs between the 500 yen coin and the flat plate metal coincides with the timing when the outer peripheral part of the coin passes near the thickness sensor, and it is considered that the output at this time indicates the coining degree of the coin. Be done. The present invention intends to detect the coining degree of coins by the output of the thickness sensor 8 at this time. The output waveform 40 of the material sensor 7 is substantially the same as that of the 500-yen coin and the flat plate metal as shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, the value obtained by subtracting the constant value 23 from the maximum value 21 of the output of the thickness sensor 8 is set as the threshold value 22,
Time 2 when the output of the thickness sensor 8 is above the threshold value 22
00 and 300 detect the degree of coining. If the threshold value 22 is fixed, it is easily affected by fluctuations in temperature and power supply voltage.
Although the value obtained by subtracting 3 is used, a product of the maximum value 21 and a constant value (for example, 0.9) may be used. Time 200,300 when the output of the thickness sensor 8 is above the threshold value 22
Is calculated by taking the difference between times 210 and 310 when the output exceeds the threshold 22 and times 220 and 320 when the output falls below the threshold 22.
In this embodiment, the coining detecting means 11 is the thickness sensor 8
The output of the thickness sensor 8 is input after being A / D converted at regular intervals. If the output of the thickness sensor 8 is equal to the threshold value 22, the time at this time is set. If not, the threshold value 2 is set.
The time obtained by complementing two input values sandwiching 2 with a straight line is used.

The times 200 and 300 when the output of the thickness sensor 8 thus obtained is equal to or greater than the threshold value 22 are obviously affected by the passing speed of coins, and therefore the passing speed needs to be corrected. In the present embodiment, the time 400 between the two maxima of the output of the material sensor 7 which is considered to be proportional to the passing speed of coins is used, but if the one showing the passing speed of coins is used, Correction is possible without limitation. This time 400 is time 410 when the output of the material sensor 7 takes the first maximum and time 420 when the output of the material sensor 7 takes the second maximum.
The difference is calculated as follows. In order to obtain the maximum time more accurately, the first maximum is taken as an example to explain the maximum value 4
A value obtained by subtracting the constant value 43 from 1 is set as the threshold 42, and an intermediate time between the time 411 above this threshold 42 and the time 412 below this threshold 42 is taken as the time 410 at which the first maximum is obtained.
The coining detecting means 11 detects the time 20 when the output of the thickness sensor 8 obtained as described above is the threshold value 22 or more.
A signal indicating a value obtained by dividing 0,300 by the time 400 between the two maxima of the output of the material sensor 7 is output to the comparison circuit 15.

The storage circuit 17 stores a reference value for each type of true coin. In the comparison circuits 13 to 16, the inputs from the respective detection means 9 to 12 are compared with the reference of the storage circuit 17, and if they match within the allowable error range, a signal indicating the type of the genuine coin is used as a reference value of which type. If they do not match, a signal indicating that the coin is false is output. The determination circuit 18 outputs a signal indicating the type of genuine coin only when the signals from the comparison circuits 13 to 16 all indicate the same type of genuine coin, and a determination signal 19 indicating a signal indicating false coin otherwise. Output as.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the coining degree of the coin can be detected by the output when the outer peripheral portion of the coin passes near the thickness sensor 8.

In this embodiment, an example in which the output of the thickness sensor 8 is equal to or greater than the threshold value 22 for 200 and 300 is used. However, the thickness when the outer peripheral portion of the coin passes near the thickness sensor 8 If the output of the sensor 8 is used, it is possible to detect the coining degree of coins without being limited to the method of this embodiment.

Further, in the present embodiment, the example in which the change in the oscillation level when passing the coin is used for identification is shown. However, if the change in the impedance of the coil caused by the coin is used, the change in the inductance, the frequency, the phase, etc. is used. You can also

The material sensor 7 and the thickness sensor 8 are used in common for the purpose of reducing the influence of the change in the passing speed of the coin, but different sensors may be used.

[0021]

As described above, the coin discriminating apparatus of the present invention is
Since the means for detecting the coining degree of coins is provided, it is possible to identify a genuine coin and a false coin having a different coining degree, and prevent illegal use.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an output waveform diagram of a thickness sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an output waveform diagram of a material sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of a coin identifying device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 coin identification device 2 coin input port 3 coin passage 4 thickness / material combined sensor 5 outer diameter sensor 6 coin outlet 7 thickness sensor 8 material sensor 9 thickness detecting means 10 material detecting means 11 coining detecting means 12 outer diameter detecting means 13- 16 Comparison circuit 17 Storage circuit 18 Judgment circuit 19 Judgment signal 20 Thickness sensor output waveform (500 yen coin) 21 Maximum value of thickness sensor output 22 Threshold value of thickness sensor output 23 Constant value (thickness sensor) 30 Thickness sensor output waveform (Plate metal) 40 Material sensor output waveform 41 First maximum value of material sensor output 42 First threshold value of material sensor output 43 Constant value (material sensor) 200 Time when thickness sensor output is above threshold value ( (¥ 500 coin) 210 Time when the thickness sensor output exceeds the threshold (¥ 500) 220) Time when the thickness sensor output is below the threshold value (500 yen coin) 300 Time when the thickness sensor output is above the threshold value (flat metal) 310 Time when the thickness sensor output is above the threshold value (flat plate) Metal) 320 Time when the thickness sensor output falls below the threshold value (plate metal) 400 Time between two maxima of the material sensor output 410 Time when the material sensor output takes the first maximum 411 Material sensor output is the first 412 time when the material sensor output falls below the first threshold value 420 time when the material sensor output reaches the second maximum value

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A coin identification device comprising means for detecting the degree of a convex portion formed on the outer peripheral portion of a coin by the output of the thickness sensor when the outer peripheral portion of the coin passes near the thickness sensor. 2. The coin discriminating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the degree of the convex portion formed on the outer peripheral portion of the coin is detected by the time when the output of the thickness sensor is equal to or more than the threshold value. 3. The coin discriminating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a threshold value is a value obtained by subtracting a constant value from the maximum value of the output of the thickness sensor. 4. The time when the output of the thickness sensor exceeds the threshold and the time when the output of the thickness sensor falls below the threshold are set as the time when the input value is equal to the threshold, and the threshold is set when they are different. The coin discriminating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the time is obtained by complementing from two input values sandwiched. 5. The coin discriminating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the coin discriminating device is configured to make a correction based on a passing speed of coins. 6. The coin discriminating apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the coin discriminating apparatus is constructed so that the correction is made by a time between two maxima of the outputs of the material sensors. 7. A threshold value is a value obtained by subtracting a certain value from the maximum value of the output of the material sensor, and an intermediate time between the time when the output exceeds the threshold value and the time when the output falls below the threshold value is the time when the maximum value is reached. The coin identification device according to claim 6. 8. The time when the output of the material sensor exceeds the threshold and the time when the output of the material sensor falls below the threshold are set as the time when the input value becomes equal to the threshold, and the threshold is set when they differ. The coin discriminating apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the time is obtained by complementing two input values sandwiched. 9. The coin discriminating apparatus according to claim 6, wherein one sensor serves as both the thickness sensor and the material sensor.