Method and apparatus for conditioning coins prior to discrimination

Coin counting and sorting equipment is often adversely affected by the presence of foreign matter. Mechanical and electronic sorting systems and methods can fail, be damaged, caused to misread and/or become jammed. Mechanical devices such as coin transport mechanisms, coin hoppers and the like may be caused to jam or otherwise malfunction by foreign matter. Sensors may be prevented from accurately identifying a coin because of non-coin matter accompanying the coins. Sensors may become blocked or rendered ineffective because of non-coin matter collecting and or being deposited onto sensor parts. When the sensors fail the coin counting process has failed and coins are often undesirably rejected or are accepted as the incorrect denomination. The amount of non-coin matter varies and is unpredictable. In many situations, the reliability and accuracy of coin sorting, identification and/or counting processes is very important and thus the process of removing non-coin matter before the coins are transported to sorting, identification and/or counting sensors is important. The presence of non-coin matter is believed to be especially troublesome in the context of self-service, stand-alone, unmonitored and/or unattended devices, e.g. devices for counting/sorting coins by the general public or other non-trained persons. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide self-service coin processing machinery which can process coins which are accompanied by non-coin matter. A coin conditioner is provided for cleaning or otherwise conditioning coins in a coin discriminator apparatus prior to transfer to a coin sensor. Coins enter through a feed tray and move down the length of a perforated tumbler, preferably without the use of gravity, such as under screw force, mechanical or centrifugal force. The spinning tumbler is preferably rotated about its longitudinal axis by a motor. In one embodiment, a blower or vacuum draws or moves air from one area to another, with the air preferably being filtered. As coins move through and down a tumbler, projections such as vanes, fins, ridges, dimples, spines or other raised features cause mechanical agitation and/or abrasion as coins are lifted and dropped while passing longitudinally through the tumbler. The coins are conditioned and non-coin matter is collected as it is separated and/or abraded from the coin surfaces. Tumbler perforations permit non-coin matter to pass through the perforations into a collection tray or other apparatus and/o