Methods for coin sorting, coin change mechanism, and public telephone

Abstract

A public telephone that has the ability to return change to a user is described. A coin changer that is advantageously sized to fit within the space available in a public telephone built to BellCore standards advantageously replaces the coin collect/reject equipment located after a 'coin-discrimination' portion of conventional coin mechanisms found in such telephones. Existing public telephones may be readily retrofitted with the present coin changer. A three-position 'trigate' is advantageously used to direct a coin to a return chute, or to one of two mechanical coin sorters within the coin changer. In one embodiment, each sorter is operable to sort three different coin denominations. Escrow capacity is included to temporarily store sorted coins. The sorters/escrow are advantageously readily-removable so that a first sorter may be removed and another inserted to provide sorting and escrow for other coins from other coin sets, including those from other countries. Coins are delivered from escrow, under control of a processor, to a collect/return manifold containing steering vanes and coin-receiving channels. The processor is operable to determine (i) whether or not change is due, and (ii) if change is due, what coins should comprise such change. Up to three coins, each of a different denomination, are delivered to the manifold at a time. The processor controls coin routing through the manifold to a return port or a coin-collection reservoir via the steering vanes.