13 Nickels

[+ purplekow]

This is a small item.

I went to buy a soda from a vending machine today and I placed a $5 bill in the machine for a soda that cost $1.75. As I have purchased soda from this machine in the past, I knew all the change would be coming back as quarters. I was having a conversation with someone and the soda came through and all the coins came down into the slot. Without looking I piled them into my pocket. When I got to my car, I went to empty the change into the container I use for toll money. There are many toll roads here in NJ and you can still pay the toll with change, though that is changing. When I went to empty the change, I had 13 nickels rather than 13 quarters.

So I am wondering if this may be some sort of scam by the vending machine attendant, placing nickels in the quarter change slot in the machine. The cost of the soda had jumped from $1.75 to $4.35.

I am unfamiliar with the inner workings of the change mechanism in vending machines, Is this a viable, though very petty scheme, or is the amount of change that is stored in these kinds of machines such a small amount, that it would not be worth the time and effort? There are about 100 bottles of soda in the machine and if one could arrange to have the kind of short change that I received on each purchase, the vendor would stand to make as much as an extra $200 or more depending on the means of purchase.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

In high school, one of my duties as class treasurer was to manage pop machines we used for fundraising. Back then our machines only accepted coins as a can of soda was only twenty-five cents.

 

Most machines have two internal change mechanisms, one for quarters and one for nickels. Usually, they are self-filling with the quarters fed to the machine feeding the top of the quarter change mechanism, but on occasion it still requires and attendant to resupply the change. As I recall, it would be possible for the attendant to slide in a nickel rather than quarter for the change device.

 

There are about 100 bottles of soda in the machine and if one could arrange to have the kind of short change that I received on each purchase, the vendor would stand to make as much as an extra $200 or more depending on the means of purchase.

 

Back in the day, the most a 'change maker' could hold in a machine was about $25 dollars.