Issued By Durham County Council

ALL CHANGE!

A new kind of machine has appeared in the front entrances of Britain’s supermarkets. The “Coinstar” machine from America, takes unsorted change and converts it to a voucher which can be exchanged immediately for cash or shopping at the checkout. Unsorted change is poured into the machine, which can count up to 600 coins a minute. A customer display indicates the number and denomination of coins counted and gives a running cash total. A fee, typically 7.5%, is subtracted from the cash total and a voucher is printed out. In return, the customer is saved the time and trouble of counting out and bagging up large collections of loose change.

These machines have become very popular in the United States, where there are about 9,000 currently in use. There are now over 320 of them in supermarkets in this country, including two in County Durham, at the ASDA Supermarket, Spennymoor and the Sainsbury’s Supermarket, Durham.

Officers from Durham County Council’s Consumer Services recently tested these two machines, to ensure that they accurately counted a variety of coinage, and charged the appropriate fee for the use of the machine. Despite the high speed at which these machines were found to operate, they were both very accurate and no errors were found.

Phillip Holman, the County Council’s Head of Consumer Services, said: “ Consumer Services is responsible for testing the accuracy of most weighing and measuring equipment in trade use. People may be familiar with the regular testing we carry out on equipment like petrol pumps, shop scales and beer meters, but we are always keen to carry out similar checks on any new kinds of equipment, like these change machines, which come into commercial use.”

Councillor Don Ross, Deputy Leader of Durham County Council said: “I am pleased with the results of these tests. It is reassuring to know that these machines, which clearly offer a useful service, can be relied on to function correctly.”

Notes for Editors

1.  Change machines like the “Coinstar” are not specifically prescribed under UK law and have no set legal tolerances in excess or deficiency. However, all measuring equipment of this type in use for trade, is covered by a ‘catch-all’ provision under section 17 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985. Under this section, an offence is committed, and the equipment is liable to be forfeited, if it is found to be false or unjust.

2. For further information please contact Phil Holman Head of Service on 0191 3833391 or Peter Fleming Assistant Head of Service on 0191 3833584.