Some Vending Machines Don't Accept New Bills

July 19, 2000

KING COUNTY -

Those new $5 and $10 bills are meant to foil counterfeiters.

They may foil you at vending machines.

Seatac Airport is the latest place to be hit by the glitch.

Electronic eyes in its pay machines don't recognize the new currency.

In the express parking area, customers who try to pay with the redesigned bills quickly find they don't work.

An airport spokesman says new software is on the way from Switzerland that should fix the problem by next week.

The airport isn't alone, though. You may find the new bills being rejected everywhere from electronic gas pumps to pop machines.

(Me):

The video of this news story explains that the software embedded on the chips does not recognise the new bills, programmers have written new software that will. Now this is a real "embedded chip" problem, in other words, the problem actually stems from the firmware that has beeen "burned" or "embeded" on the chip being incorrect for the new American Bills. http://komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=5644

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), July 20, 2000

Answers

Definitely a timely story, Cherri. I ran into this very situation at work this evening. I put a clean, crisp, new-style $5 bill into the changer in the cafeteria/vending area -- and it was rejected. I also had an visibly worn, old-style $5 bill in my wallet, which I tried next and, voila, the machine gave me 20 quarters in change...

-- (yep@it's.true), July 20, 2000.

We experienced this "problem" in 1995 or 1996. We went to Europe and the bill-changers there didn't accept the new $100 bills. The bills DID look strange, and the bank even provided a booklet so that our trip wouldn't be ruined by folks that didn't recognize the bills.

Although new in appearance to ME, most folks in Europe were already familiar with the new bills. The machines were the only ones rejecting them.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), July 20, 2000.