Coin Mechanisms Inc. was founded in 1968 by Arlene Pierz. The company established itself by innovative design and manufacturing of high quality mechanical coin acceptors used in amusement games and the early mechanical style slot machines.
The company, known in the industry as Coin Mech, quickly became the industry standard and expanded its product line to include steel access doors and front plates used in arcade style amusement games, as well as steel coin boxes with integrated timer devices used on kiddie rides. Consequently, some of these products were successfully marketed to the coin operated car wash industry and became the industry standard in this segment as well.
Coin Mech continued to grow successfully, offering high quality innovative solutions to equipment manufacturers. The culture of Coin Mech to work closely with its customer base led, in 1982, to the development of electronic coin validators. Coin Mech developed the innovative and, at the time, the world's first Coin Comparitor® (CC), a unique product that was simple, very durable, and flexible. It also offered extremely accurate validation characteristics along with the added benefit of very fast coin feed rates of 10 coins-per-second. The Coin Comparitor® offered better overall performance and higher security and it quickly became the product of choice with casinos worldwide. This innovation led to the introduction of the first model CC-10 in 1983.
In 1993, Coin Mech innovated the first coin validator to feature optical recognition of specially marked gaming tokens. The combination of optical recognition and alloy discrimination has created the most secure coin validation system available to casinos. This new product platform was called the Intelligent Comparitor® (IC). The IC was designed to function with either aSmartMark® sensor to validate marked tokens, or a Valence sensor to discriminate against lead slugs. The IC/SmartMark system is currently the most widely used high security token system now deployed in the gaming industry. Over 150 casinos worldwide are now using the IC/SmartMark system.
In 1996, Coin Mech enhanced its original Coin Comparitor® design with the introduction of theMicro Comparitor (MC) platform, which has microcomputer control logic. This technology upgrade dramatically enhanced the security features afforded by the comparitor, as well as improving its reliability and durability.
In 2001, Coin Mech introduced its newest high security platform, the Defender, designed to protect casino customers from highly sophisticated, engineered cheating techniques. Defenderemploys computer controlled, multi-sensor arrays with complex integrated timing algorithms. It is designed to provide maximum security for the validation of currency and non-marked gaming tokens.
In 2003, sensing a shift in the gaming industry away from coin validators, Coin Mech formed a joint venture company with UK based pushbutton and reel mech manufacturer Gamesman Limited, further expanding its product line. In 2004 and 2005 Coin Mech continued to diversify its business by offering such innovative products as cold cathode lighting (CCFL), wedge based L.E.D.s, Azkoyen brand hoppers and multi-coin validators, Debitkey debit systems, and a universal topper sign.
