AVA boss in fresh warning about effects of new 5p and 10p coins on vending industry

6th September 2010, 10:44am

The chief executive of The Automatic Vending Association (AVA) has revealed to The Telegraph that his earlier warnings about the new 5p and 10p coins potentially causing chaos to the vending industry were ignored – and says the changes are likely to spell disaster for vending machine users.

Jonathan Hilder's comments, which are published on The Telegraph website, come ahead of the changes due to take place from January 2011 which will see 5p and 10p coins become magnetic for the first time and be made using more cost-efficient materials.

The report reveals that while it won't be easy to spot any physical changes or feel any difference in weight in the new coins, the coins will become 11 per cent thicker, moving from 1.7mm in depth to 1.9mm – and will therefore cause problems for vending machines.

The change, which was proposed by the former Labour government, is designed to save the Royal Mint between £7 million and £8 million a year by allowing it to use steel rather than copper, which has seen a hike in price in recent years.

While the changes will not affect everyone, they are likely to cause problems for the catering environments where vending machines are set up to accept the current coins.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Hilder, whose members service 500,000 vending machines in Britain, said: "We've told the Treasury and The Royal Mint that this is going to be a disaster, but they haven't taken notice.

"It's meant to be a money saving exercise, but this will cost the vending industry £42 million and the coin machine industry as a whole possibly as much as £100 million.

"The problem comes about because tea and chocolate dispensers are sophisticated machines designed to detect fraudulent coinage. They test each coin by shape, weight as well as its electromagnetic composition.

"All machines will have to have their software updated, and in most instances, need to be recalibrated to recognise both the new coins and the old ones, which will continue to be in circulation for at least a decade.

"While the Royal Mint has given the industry with a few samples of the new coins, they have not provided final production versions, making it impossible to start changing the machines. The industry said it does not have enough engineers to undertake the overhaul in less than four months."

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