The Singapore Mint Coin Visual Inspection Machine

The Singapore Mint’s Coin Visual Inspection Machine is able to differentiate coins of the same specifications, but of different designs/ visual features/condition/surface finishing of coins.

The machine seeks to serve 2 key purposes:

1. To sieve through coins which are acceptable for re-circulation
   • The coin visual inspection machines allows firstly, for coins to be defined on a scale of acceptability – the visual features which are accepted are first defined.
   • The machine is able to examine the newly minted coins or the deposited coins to differentiate between coins of acceptable visual features (eg., no stains, fully formed designs etc). This is done in high speed with an estimated number of 800 – 1200 processed per minute.
2. To differentiate coins of the same specifications, but of different designs to be sorted in accordance.
   • This machine was most effectively used in the case of Thailand Baht Circulation coins.
   • The first coins of new King Rama X was introduced to the market in April 2018. With the introduction of these new coins, the old coins featuring King Rama IX needs to be collected back from the public. The Singapore Mint introduction of this visual inspection machine enables for this to be done effectively despite the coins sharing the same exact material and technical specifications. (Note: Current use of the machine for said project is currently on-trial basis and yet to be implemented, it illustrates one of the uses of the machine.)

In most cases, it is crucial for the coin specifications parameters to be different to ensure sorting of the coins. However, The Singapore Mint Visual Coin Inspection machine eliminates the additional manpower resources required via the system visual analysis to sort both accepted/rejected coins and coins of the correct design.

The Coin Visual Inspection Machine enables efficient processing of coins for re-circulation in the market, effectively ensuring unnecessary resources are no longer need to be depleted for production of new circulation coins to be introduced to the market. This translates to reduced need for metal mining, coin manufacturing, in term resulting in lesser energy, electricity, raw metal and packaging material to be consumed.

In the case of the use of the Coin Visual Inspection machine to distinguish between the new and old thai baht coin, this integrated system results in an improved process to efficiently filter out the old coins to be collected back by the banks, and new coins to be re-introduced back to the market.

It is the inaugural use of the Coin Visual Inspection Machine to sort coins of the same specifications/ parameters but of differing designs to facilitate the renewal of circulation coin series in the market.