Got any spare change?Cash Technologies finds success sorting, counting and reselling other people's coins Ever since the Hollywood branch of Coast Federal Bank installed a coin-counting machine in its lobby, there has been a stream of people bringing in their quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies. "They come in with coins in jars and suitcases and pillowcases," said Maria Montenotte, branch manager. One man brought in $4,000 in quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies in plastic Vons bags over two days, Montenotte said. Another man, an apartment manager who needs to change coins he gets from the apartment laundry machines, has thanked Montenotte effusively ef·fu·sive adj. 1. Unrestrained or excessive in emotional expression; gushy: an effusive manner. 2. Profuse; overflowing: effusive praise. for installing the machine. "He used to fly to Chicago, to his brother's bank" with a suitcase full of quarters to get the money counted, she said. The machine "makes noise like a Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. machine. We have had people throw in 14 cents in coins just to hear it," she said. The machine, which is called "Coin-Bank," counts quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies, deducts 6 percent, and issues a receipt. People can take the receipt to the teller TELLER. An officer in a bank or other institution. He is said to take that name from tallier, or one who kept a tally, because it is his duty to keep the accounts between the bank or other institution and its customers, or to make their accounts tally. and get bills. CoinBank is the property of Cash Technologies Inc., which was founded in 1994 by CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Bruce Korman. At present, there are about two dozen machines being tested in various locations, but Korman has plans to roll out 300 of the machines in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, bank branches in the next six months. The company has deals in place with a number of financial institutions, including Irwindale-based Home Savings of America, the largest savings and loan savings and loan n. a banking and lending institution, chartered either by a state or the Federal government. Savings and loans only make loans secured by real property from deposits, upon which they pay interest slightly higher than that paid by most banks. in the U.S. Korman is a high school-educated, self-starter who made a small fortune developing apartments and condos on the Westside in the 1980s and lost a good part of it - $15 million - in the real estate crash of the early 1990s. These days, Korman comes to work with a handgun on his belt at Cash Technologies high-security, low-profile building just south of dowtown L.A. In 1992, Korman was looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a new company to start when he learned that there were a lot of small and medium coin-operated businesses (laundries, arcades, pay phones) that had a lot of trouble getting their coins counted. "Almost every one of these companies takes their coins to a back office where they have a full-time or part-time person roll their coins and package them," Korman said. Korman started his business by buying large, commercially-available machines that sort and count coins. He has an assembly-line at his headquarters in which nickels, quarters, dimes and pennies are rolled into 40- and 50-coin, paper-wrapped rolls. Korman makes a profit by buying coins from businesses like laundries and pay phone companies at a discount of 1 to 2 percent. He then resells them to businesses that need coins, such as supermarket chains, at face value plus a small fee. Cash Technologies opened for business in mid- 1994 and brought in less than $5,000 in revenue in the final six months of that year, Korman said. Last year, revenues jumped to $15.2 million and Korman estimates revenue will be about double that in 1996. The company has been making a small profit on an operating basis, but is losing money on a net basis, because it has had high capital expenditures, Korman said. He adds, though, that it's on track to be "very profitable" by the end of next year. Korman said he plans to take the company public and has been talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to investment bankers Investment Banker A person representing a financial institution that is in the business of raising capital for corporations and municipalities. Notes: An investment banker may not accept deposits or make commercial loans. , but he declined to offer any details. Right now, most of the company's business is processing coins for wholesale clients, including Amtrak Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corp., authorized to operate virtually all intercity passenger railroad routes in the United States. Amtrak was created by Congress in 1970 in response to more than two decades of continuous operating deficits by privately run , Ralph's, Hughes and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But the future is in retail. A few months after he began the business, people would ask him if they could come by on a Sunday - when the office was officially closed - and get their extra change counted and rolled. He hired engineers to design his Coin-Bank machine. It is about the size of a washing machine (storage) washing machine - An old-style 14-inch hard disk in a floor-standing cabinet. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the "top-loading" access to the media packs - and, of course, they were always set on "spin cycle". and there are easy-to-use directions. Korman noted that there is a higher profit margin in processing coins on the retail level. Home Savings conducted a survey of customers in the six branches where it is testing the machines and found that, while there were a few complaints, the majority of customers did not mind paying the 6 percent retail charge. There are companies that operate coin-counting machines on the East Coast that charge between 7 and 7.5 percent. Earl Lui, staff attorney with Consumers Union, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group, said the 6 percent charge "seems awfully high." Check cashers are prohibited by state law from charging more than 3 percent to cash a payroll or government check, Lui said. Most charge between 1 percent and 2 percent, he added. But Korman noted that check cashers deal with much larger amounts of money. Many people who use CoinBank are processing about $10 worth of coins. A 1 percent charge would amount to 10 cents. "We'd lose money," Korman said. Bank manager Montenotte said people who have used the machine in her branch don't mind paying the 6 percent charge. "They had the money at home and it was useless," she said. Spotlight Cash Technologies Inc. Founded: 1994 Headquarters: Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Core Business: Providing cash processing services including sorting, counting, rolling and packaging coins Revenue then: less than $5,000 (1994) Revenue now: $15.2 million (1995) Employees then: 2 Employees now: 15 Number of clients: 50, including Amtrak, Ralph's Hughes, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Southern California Payphone payphone Noun a coin-operated telephone payphone pay n → Münztelefon nt; (card phone) → Kartentelefon nt Services Owners: private investors, including Richard Miller Richard Miller may be:
Driving Force: Solving the national "coin problem In mathematics, a coin problem is any of a class of problems of the general form:
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