2016-11-03 Thu

The introduction of the world’s most secure coin by Britain in the form of a new 12 sided pound will definitely control rampant counterfeiting activities. The coin has micro-lettering, a latent image and a secret security feature, which makes faking it real tough.

Apart from the general public, vending industry will also have to make major adjustments. Electronic sensors are used by the modern machines to “validate” a coin with numerous checks like speed past the sensor, diameter and metal content etc. Depending on the machine, some coins are sent to the change hopper where the new pound would face some issues. A general software update is also sufficient for most occasions.

Some vending machine repair companies are offering to do the adjustment for £100 while others are quoting £90-£130 a machine for the simplest software upgrade to most parking meters and £250-£350 if the validator needs replacing and “considerably more” if the meter must provide change. The Royal Mint states on the other hand that the cost of changing “all the machines in the country” would be £15-£20m.

The same would be the case with older and simpler technologies like lockers, washing machines, shopping trolleys etc. Since the repair would be charged on a per-item basis, the cost incurred in such cases would be higher! Another option is to switch to pound-shaped plastic tokens or offer separate keys where the number of lockers is more.

Experts predict that due to these hassles, people will switch to card payments in the future and vending machines might become a thing of the past.