Token Laws

[compirate]

Interesting article from the US Treasury I just came across.
http://www.usmint.gov/consumer/index...&action=policy

Don't go buyin' no coffee whit dem tokens!

[luckydog]

were safe pachislo tokens are 25mm or .984.

[slotter]

Darn, and here I was busy all day long converting all the machines to quarters so I wouldn't be in violation of this Treasury write up! (Oh, never mind, that would be illegal, too...) Hmm... well, good thing .984 is OK in that case.

Sheesh!

[arbycoffee]

I wonder what about the Look like tokens used now in old Mills type slot machines. They are made to fool the machine in thinking it's a 25¢ piece. They were being sold on ebay last fall.

[monaghj]

The statute only applies to the manufacture and use of these tokens. Assuming these look alikes were manufactured in a foreign country for foreign use the statute would never have applied. The fact that the tokens were sold or imported to the US does not necessarily constitute use or violate the statute. There is nothing in the legistation that indicates private collectors cannot posess these or would even need to register these coins. Every thing points to "use" as a commercial endevor. I do however suspect it could be argued that posession in the vicinity of a commerical vending device could imply intent.

[cwstnsko]

A little more extraneous information.

30 pai tokens are theoretically 1.181 (not legal to mfg in US), mine actually measure 1.19. The US Half dollar I have for comparision measures 1.20 and works perfectly in the 30 pai machine I have with NO conversion.

The smaller (an thicker) two-tone tokens I have measure about .970 and would therefore not be legal for manufacture or use in the US.

As monaghj stated above, I expect this would only become an issue you were trying to use these tokens inappropriatly to fool vending machines or if you set up a 30-pai skill-stop parlor as a business

Other trivia; Chuck-E-Cheese, Jeepers and Eatza-Pizza tokes are all very close to 25mm. They work great in Pachislos, but are expensive. I have one machine that has several hundred of each. If the kids hit a BB, they get to keep the tokens for our next visit I assume these pizza joint would not be amused to finda bunch of pachi tokens in their hoppers , but they'd probably work just fine

[monaghj]

The coin mechs on pinball go mainly on weight and diamater of a quarter. They have a defined coin path that sort of compares thickness but for the most part no comparison is made.

Chuckie and company use tokens to cut down on theft by employees. They do all sorts of promotions for birthdays and such. Ie hand out 20 tokens to each kid. My kid would pocket the quarters but at least if the tokens walk they are less than .04 each and thats cheap advertising. Its also one more thing that the franchiser gets to flog.

My IGT (Vegas) slots have coin comparators that gage size and thickness. So I can change from token to quarter to silver dollar simply by changing the sample inside the machine. No weight comparison is done.

Despite the coin mech being able to tell the difference between a token and a quarter, I found an interesting article on coin shaving.

http://www.idxinc.com/shaving.htm
http://www.dailygate.com/articles/20...news/news9.txt

[arbycoffee]

What a person will do to steal, darn, it is harder than working.

Oh a point:
What doesn't kill you makes you weaker for next time

[monaghj]

I also started a new thread on all of the coinless slots in use in Vegas, I guess this really will cut down on such practices. I just hope pashilos keep using coins.

[slotter]

Enjoyed the read, monaghj, about the shaved coins and other methods cheaters use to defraud the the casinos. Thanks!