FAQ's

The reference coin is also called a compare coin, sample coin, standard, master, or fixed coin. It is held in the discriminator device also called a comparator.  This is the coin all raw coins are measured against electronically to determine if they are to be kept or rejected.  If a coin in the raw coins matches the reference coin, it will be accepted, if it is not metalically the same it will be rejected.

Heres a little video that describes the Reference Coin and the Sensitivity Adjustment screw (potentiomenter or Variable Resistor).

The Ryedale Apprentice semi-automatic sorter has the capability of sorting up to $180 (18,000 coins) of raw coin per hour in face value. A realistic estimate however is to plan on about $150 per hour (15,000 coins) as there are sometimes jammed coins, or other inefficiencies like doubled coins that can slow down your progress.

This is an exercise that each individual must do in their own town.

Ability to get coins is widely variable at every banking institution, or Credit Union.  I recommend the following tactic.  Starting with your own bank, determine if you can order boxes ($25) of rolled coins.  This is a tactic many have successfully used to build significant inventories of copper alloy coins.  If you have exhausted your options with your own banking institution, I recommend branching out.        

Get your phone book out, and look up the banking section.  Look on a map and determine all the banks within a practical driving distance to you.  Contact those banks or credit unions and ask if they can provide you with coins. They may tell you that you must be an account holder, or member.    Ask if they have a “self service coin return” or a “coin counter” available to account holders.  If they do, you can do one of two things.
1. Ask if they will sell you $50 bags of loose coins from the self service machine or counter, these would be coins that other account holders or members have returned, and possibly hold good ratios of good coins to bad. 
2. If they will not sell them to you, ask if they have a charge for returning coins to these machines.  Usually there is a small charge, like 2% or 5%.  If it’s free, try to establish an account at that bank and you will have a good place to drop off your unwanted coins such as zinc or steel based coins.  

Another tactic is to buy CWR Customer Wrapped Rolls.  Some banks have them some do not. Often times the tellers are required to unwrap CWR before it is taken out with their armored car service company, usually it is put in a $50 loose bag.  You can offer a “service” of removing the CWR without them having to get dirty and unwrap it themselves, just have them save it for you, and be sure to get in on a regular schedule to pick it up.

Again, do your homework. I am often asked how to get coins, but the only town I can speak for is my own, it is different in each town and different with every institution.  This is an exercise you must do to determine if you can get coins in a quantity that allows and justifies the activity.  The three P’s rule comes to your aid more than you would imagine…First off, be Patient, Persistent, and mostly Polite.  You will often be surprised how helpful the tellers can be if you bring the a little chocolate too.

The activity of returning unwanted coins is nearly the same as getting coins to sort, and can be easily integrated into your other process.  If a bank turns you down for acquiring coins, but they have a self service coin return machine, or even a machine that only the tellers can use, you can get an account solely to have a “dump bank” as we call it.  

The most important thing to remember about returning your unwanted coins is to be conscious of the quantity or volume you bring in.  A “dump bank” is almost more important than the bank you pick up coins at. If you lose this part of the activity, it will greatly impair your ability to process coins.  
Consider taking $50 to 100 per week to each bank, let coins stack up occasionally if necessary. Remember time is on your side.

Another method is to use a Coinstar type machine in a grocery or department store.  Do not use the ones that charge you 9% to drop, as there are some that will allow you to get a gift card with no fees.  I have done this when I needed to order from Amazon or even use a gift card at a Lowes.  I understand this is limited as you will run out of things to buy long before you run out of zinc to return, it’s just another option.  

Acquiring loose bagged coins can be coupled with your coin pickups and returns.  Not all banking institutions are in favor of this, but if you secure a deal to buy loose bagged coins you will eliminate having to unwrap coins before sorting.  Any bank with a self service coin return machine, or a counter that the tellers use, produces $50 bags of loose coins.  Keep in mind, some models use a bulk box in the bottom of the machine, and you will not be able to buy loose bagged pennies from this style machine, as they are all mixed together, and in undefined/large quantities.   

To get these bags, simply ask if they are willing to sell you the $50 bags of pennies instead of sending them back with their armored service.  Suggest that it is easier for them to sell you the bag than to send it in, as they don’t need to do any fancy accounting and record keeping if you walk in with a $50 bill, and struggle out with the coins.  Some banks are happy to do this, and some are not.  It’s a mystery to me why they oppose doing this, but perhaps you can suggest you really like to go through them for Wheats.  

Be sure that unless you have a really good relationship or special situation, that you ensure them you will not bring them back the zinc, and all you want to do is acquire the bagged coin.  

Usually your dump bank is not your buy bank, and vice versa.

There are a couple types of wrapped coins out there, as well as a couple ways to open them efficiently.   The Ryedale un-wrapper has not been developed yet, probably will not be any time soon.  

First determine what type rolls you have, just like in the grocery store….”paper or plastic”

If you have plastic, you are going to be fighting an uphill battle; these little sleeves are much more difficult to open as compared to the paper.  I personally use a utility knife, and scribe the plastic, not necessarily cutting all the way through, but am very careful, if you cut your own finger, it will likely require stitches.  I wear cut resistant gloves while doing this.  Other methods include ripping off one end of the plastic where It goes around the last coin. Then pinching the roll as to start it to turn in the sleeve, and pinch through the end you ripped the plastic off.  Good luck and if you have any suggestions that are better, I may post your idea here.

If you have paper wrapped rolls, they can be difficult to crack and then get the coins out, as they are often times very tight in the paper.  
A method I use is to pierce through the tight paper ring, and ripping the ring off. Flip the roll and do the other end, then the coins just fall out of the paper.  
Starting with a small screwdriver, or a small knife, such as a little Swiss Army pocket knife (¼ by 1½ inch blade works great) you can push the knife blade outward and under the ring from the end of the roll. Then rotate slightly and finish by tearing the ring off, leaving the ring on the knife.   I will demonstrate this technique in a video here. 

If you have paper CWR (Customer Wrapped Rolls) with folded ends, you can simply unfold or use the same knife technique.  Others just bash the roll against the edge of a 5 gallon bucket and shake a couple times, and all the coins usually fall out. 

People often ask about the extension hoppers.  The “coin cup” on the machine serves as the first hopper, holding about 700 pennies. An extension hopper is a simple square unit that sits on the coin cup, held on with gravity and the weight of the coins.  It holds about 700 more coins. It also has a baffle plate installed in it to “bear the weight” of the coins so they do not load the feed wheel directly.  I personally run two on my machine, this way I can keep busy with other activities such as bagging zinc, unwrapping raw stock, or just marveling at speed of the machine.

I get customers that say, what’s the SnP assembly?  Well… it’s probably the most critical part of the Ryedale sorter, and requires a little dab of lubricant, about every $300 face in coin. New machines are tighter and may require lube a little more often.  When I get my machine off the shelf after it’s been sitting for a few days, I automatically remove the coin cup, and coin bridge, and apply just a drop of Dri-Slide to the SnP.  SnP stands for spring and Pawl assembly.  Watch these couple movies to understand why you need it, and how to apply it. 

Dirty SnP assembly  Maximize viewer to see text baloons.

Dirty/sticky SnP assembly with Coin Bridge removed. Maximize viewer to see text baloons

Lubricated SnP Ideal condition         Maximize the viewer to see text baloons.

I would recommend at least getting a feed wheel.  When a wheel wears out, the coins double up under and the machine labors or jams to a stop. It’s really hard on the machine.  If yours does this on a Friday you will have one on the shelf, if you don’t have one it can take a week to get it, presuming I’m even available to process orders.   For $10 it’s a good part to have on the shelf.  

Out of the box the machine will have everything needed to sort coins.

There are a couple service parts (wheel and coin cup) and one optional part (extension hopper)

Please review a couple videos associated with these items to understand their use.

There are a couple things that can cause the machine to jam, consult your owners manual to learn the reasons why this might be happening.  Usually...jammed coins on the in-feed chute are caused by a dirty or sticky Spring and Pawl assembly.  This device helps to eject or throw the coins from the cube hopper. Watch the following four videos to understand the action and effect of the un-lubricated SnP and compare to the lubricated SnP.   

If your machine is jamming in the feeder, this can be caused by a worn out or dirty feed wheel.  Or by a bent coin, and possibly a "wrong denomination" coin.

Lubing your SnP assembly

Dirty SnP assembly  Maximize viewer to see text baloons.

Dirty/sticky SnP assembly with Coin Bridge removed. Maximize viewer to see text baloons

Lubricated SnP Ideal condition         Maximize the viewer to see text baloons.

There are a few things to check if your machine is sorting poorly.  When a comparator is working properly, it will make very few mistakes.

I often have people call me the first day they get their machine, saying it’s not sorting correctly. I even had a guy recall his payment once saying it was “Significantly not as described” as you can imagine I was really wondering what happened.

I contacted the customer, and discovered that it was not sorting correctly because he thought the “reference coin” was a jammed coin. He had removed the sample coin, and of course now the comparator has nothing to compare too, so it simply cannot work properly, and jams constantly and accepts/rejects coins at will.   Do not mistake your reference (sample) coin for a jammed coin.
There are a few other things that have happened, but are very rare.  If a machine is grossly mishandled in shipping, it can bend, break or the parts can even move slightly.  If you suspect your machine was mishandled, please contact us right away.

Unpacking your machine

Reference coin and sensitivity adjust.   MAKE SURE YOUR MACHINE HAS A REFERENCE COIN IN THE HOLDER OR IT WILL NOT WORK.

The Reference coin is the coin that is fixed or held by spring tension behind the little sticker that says “slide to replace coin”. This coin is required and must be in place for the comparator to have something to compare to.
You can change your reference coin from copper to zinc, or even a Nickel (when sorting for nickels of better alloy), but no matter what you do if there is no reference coin it will not work properly.

You can change your sample coin by pushing the “coil pack” upwards and to the right.  This will release the spring tension and allow you to replace the sample coin with the coin of your choice.    Very simple, do not be intimidated by this process,.

Watch this short video on how to change your sample coin.  

The Coin Artist was the first model of Ryedale Sorter available.  A decision was made to discontinue this model based on a couple factors.  The number one reason though, was that it was difficult for the owner/operator to access the working parts of the machine.  Many people left their machines partially disassembled to do the regular maintenance on the unit, including cleaning and lubricating as necessary.  
Other factors were the shipping weight at over 22 lbs, the added cost, (sheet metal parts were over $100) which had zero to do with functionality.

There are no current plans to make the Coin Artist again, but here is the legendary video that started it all.

Check out this chart… it shows why some old Wheats are rejected. They have “mixed” alloys and the sheet stock the mint used was not purified enough.  When using a newer sample coin, the machine is comparing the moving coins against the reference coin. If they do not match within a practical window of acceptance, it will reject the coin. 

These coins were originally "rejected" by the Ryedale with a copper alloy reference coin installed.  I was curious what was going on, so I used an XRAY Flourescence device to measure the metal content/blend in each coin.  I think you'll find this chart interesting, as it shows that the coins have a wide variety of elements in the mix.

Short answer…no….Long answer…noooooo.

Here’s why..look at the chart in the Why does my machine reject some wheat pennies?

In the old days, each roll or sheet of copper could have had different alloy content, the purification process just wasn’t good enough, and the Mint had a larger window of acceptable metals in the coins.  So…. Each old wheat penny could have slightly different metal/alloy content.

There are reports of machines stopping intermittently when sorting.  Sometimes with heavy coin loads, as well as dirty coins, and especially bent coins, the machine will “labor” too much, which heats up the feeder circuitry, and it has a device that protects the unit from burning out.  This is a normal function of the machine, but if the frequency goes beyond what you feel is “normal” you can try a couple things.  

If you are experiencing this, first confirm there are no bent coins or doubled up coins in the hopper/feeder unit. Clean your feed wheel and you can also use a small amount of silicone spray (get it from a good hardware store) on the base unit under the wheel. This will decrease the drag.  If you continue to have trouble you may opt to send in your unit and an inspection and upgrade can help with this problem.