Coin sorting apparatus with rotating disc stationary guide plate for sorting coins by their different diameters

A coin sorter for sorting coins in terms of their diameter comprising:

• a rotatably mounted coin-carrying disc having a resilient top surface onto which coins may be fed;
• means for rotating said disc to move the coins circumferentially;
• a guide plate having a central opening and a lower surface positioned over and closely adjacent to said disc, and wherein said lower surface forms an inner recess within which coins are free to move radially, and said inner recess extends outwardly from said central opening,
• referencing means for engaging the radially outer edges of the coins as they are advanced circumferentially so that the radially outer edges of the coins are positioned at a preselected radial location, whereby the radially inner edges of the coins are positioned at different radial locations determined by the diameters of the respective coins,
• sorting means comprising a series of circumferentially spaced exit recesses have inner ends and are formed around the outer periphery of said guide plate with the radially inner edges of the inner ends of successive exit recesses located at different radial positions for receiving the inner portions of coins of progressively increasing diameter, said exit recesses having inboard and outboard edges, said exit recesses extending outwardly to the periphery of said guide plate so that the inner edges of the recesses guide the respective coins outwardly and eject those coins from between said disc and said guide plate, each exit recess having a width at least as great as the diameter of the coin denomination to be received therein, and
• a ramp at an inlet end of each of said exit recesses, each ramp sloping from the lowermost surface of said guide plate at the inlet end of the exit recess upwardly to the top surface of the exit recess for easing coins into the exit recess under the pressure of said resilient surface, the ramp for at least certain of said recesses having a width, in a direction transverse of the direction of coin movement, less than half the recess width in the same direction.