Antitheft design for rotary coin mechanisms

摘要

A method and apparatus for an improved rotary coin mechanism that prevents the theft of vending machine items by preventing the maintained presence of a theft tool used by a thief to interfere with the operation of a coin detector so that a coin slot without a coin of the prescribed size can be rotated past the coin detector to allow product to vend without the insertion of a coin of the prescribed size. The invention closes a gap between the rotating coin disc and the mechanism casing after a coin slot has entered into the rotary coin mechanism casing so that the theft tool cannot be maintained in an inserted position for a sufficient range of rotation of the rotary coin mechanism handle. The invention applies to rotary coin mechanisms that require one or more coins in order to obtain the vended item.