Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Money Counting Machines

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Topic: Money Counting Machines

Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 04-04-2007 05:50 PM

Can anybody else share their experience with advanced money and coin counting machines? I've heard of some pretty involved machines that some chains use to help process money.

When I was with Century we used Cummins money counters which were pricy and tempermental. One of the Public Markets I work for now has gigantic coin sorter/counter, but they're the only ones who have that.

Do many of you use bill and coin counters? If so, any tips on which have worked better for you?

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Sam King
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 120
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Oct 2006

posted 04-04-2007 06:15 PM

We use a machine from the GLORY company. It's GREAT. You don't have to seperate bills out. It gives you the total of whatever you put in. It's always accurate and very fast. It's only a little tempermental. They have good customer support, we had a belt go bad in it and they came out and fixed it. I hear the machine is uber expensive. But if you handle a lot of cash, it's a must!

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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 04-04-2007 11:36 PM

I've never worked in a googaplex in a mega market, but I've had some busy days. About 7 years ago we pulled out a 40,000 Saturday, all cash. No coin counters, no bill counters.

Personally I've found the cheap coin counters to be worthless. Unless its 100% reliable what's the point? The really reliable machines are the very pricey ones; I'm not sure the expense is really justified unless you are a super busy location.

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Ron Keillor
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 166
From: Vancouver, B.C. Canada
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 04-04-2007 11:42 PM

A cautionary note: the last bill counter I saw had been worn out by being used to count comment cards in a theatre that had a lot of screenings.

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Paul Konen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 981
From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-05-2007 09:24 AM

Absolutely use a counter. Ours is old, almost 8 years of operation, tempermental with new reserve notes that haven't been used yet. Mostly $1 bills. A quick look for money counters yielded ones that have some counterfeit detection and weren't too expensive.

Don't know how well they would work on the lastest scam?
Should work ok as the counterfeits don't have magnetic ink.

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Christopher Crouch
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 128
From: Holywood, ca, usa
Registered: May 2006

posted 04-05-2007 05:39 PM

In my megaplex days, one large chain I worked for used three currency machines, one Glory discriminator and two Glory counters. The discriminator identified individual bills, producing a total and breakdown report of denominations (this machine also had a counterfit detector and ability to face bills via two trays). The counter machines just logged total number of items (cash, coupons, passes) passed through, with the ability to conduct bundle counts (i.e. it would stop when a preset bundle count was reached). I found the counter machines to be relatively simple and easy to maintain. The discriminator required more maintainance and frequent cleanings to function properly(we usually found the need to clean out the sensor area after every drop). Both types of machines were used, in tandem, due to this particular company's cashroom proceedures.

Another chain I worked for used a Cummins discriminator and this machine was a nightmare. It seemed as if the slightest irregularity (fold, rip, etc.) resulted in a jam or bills shooting out of the tray. Additionally, there were frequent issues with accuracy.

For coins, we had a bulk hopper (I don't recall the make) that could seperate/count in to bags or load in to "shotgun shell" style rolls (this was in the days before rounded off pricing, so we had a lot of misc. coin). Prior to this machine, which required practically no special care, we had a high end Glory coin sorter that constantly broke down and jammed.

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Mark Hajducki
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Edinburgh, UK
Registered: May 2003

posted 04-05-2007 05:50 PM

Worked in a site that had the coin/note counting scales which seemed to be fairly accurate (I don't know which manufacturer).

It was necessary to group the coins and notes (copper, 5/10p, 20p 50p £1/2, £1 notes, £5 notes ...) but the machine kept track of the total.

The site did have a coin sorting machine, but it was seemingly slower than hand sorting.

--

Note recognition seems to have improved a lot recently (even living in a country where private firms issue banknotes) and are now found in more banks and supermarkets.

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