Coin processing apparatus

A coin processing apparatus comprising:

• coin conveying means for horizontally conveying coins inserted through a coin slot at a predetermined speed along a coin conveying passage;
• coin discriminating means disposed along said coin conveying passage or determining the denomination of the coin being conveyed by said coin conveying means along said coin conveying passage and emitting a corresponding denomination identification output;
• a plurality of coin accumulating means providing for each denomination of coin, for accumulating the coins by denominations;
• said coin accumulating means being arranged in a direction perpendicular to a direction of conveyance of said coins in said coin conveying passage,
• distributing means for distributing the coins passed through said coin conveying passage to one of said plurality of coin accumulating means in correspondence with said denomination identification output of said coin discriminating means, said distributing means including:
• an inclined coin passage through which the coin passing through said coin conveying passage rolls down;
• a plurality of coin distributing means each disposed along said inclined coin passage and in correspondence with said plurality of coin accumulating means and adapted to selectively execute a first distributing operation for passing a coin rolling through said inclined coin passage and a second distributing operation for directing the coin from said inclined coin passage to a corresponding one of said coin distributing means;
• and
• coin paying-out means for conveying the coins in a substantially horizontal direction from the coins accumulated in said plurality of coin accumulating means, to a coin return means.