The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 21, 2006
Filed:
Dec. 05, 2002
Gregory Winters, Snohomish, WA (US);
Gregory Winters, Snohomish, WA (US);
Coinstar, Inc., Bellevue, WA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for detecting coin fraud in coin-counting machines and other devices that count and/or sort coins and other objects. In one embodiment, the method includes discriminating multiple coins to determine a number of real coins and a number of faux coins. In one aspect of this embodiment, the faux coins can have one or more coin characteristics falling generally close to corresponding characteristics of the real coins. The method can further include determining a quotient based on the number of real coins and faux coins. If the determined quotient is greater than or equal to a selected threshold value, then the transaction can be identified as being possibly fraudulent. In the event of a possibly fraudulent transaction, the method can include controlling the transaction, for example, by returning any uncounted coins to a user, or by halting the transaction.