Slug (coin)
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A slug is a counterfeit coin that is used to make illegal purchases from a coin-operated device, such as a
vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The ...
, payphone, parking meter, transit farebox, copy machine, coin laundry,
gaming machine A gaming computer or gaming PC is a personal computer specifically designed for playing video games at very high video game graphics, graphic and gameplay computer configuration, configurations. Gaming PCs typically differ from mainstream person ...
, or arcade game. By resembling various features of a genuine coin, including the weight, size, and shape, a slug is designed to trick the machine into accepting it as a real coin. Losses caused to vendors by slug usage may be the result of the loss of sales, the absence of revenue following the distribution of merchandise that was obtained at the vendor's expense, or the loss of cash that is distributed by the machine for overpayment with slugs. Honest customers may also suffer losses when change returned for overpayment is in the form of a slug rather than a genuine coin. Though slug usage is illegal in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and elsewhere, prosecution for slug usage is rare due to the low value of the theft and the difficulty in identifying the offender. Offenders in
casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
s are most likely to be prosecuted, as casinos have high levels of
video surveillance Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly tr ...
and other security measures, and tend to be more proactive in enforcement.


Use of other currencies

In some cases, a slug can be a genuine coin used in another country, with or without knowledge of the user. * Until 2006, the Australian and New Zealand 5-, 10- and 20-cent pieces (previously sixpence, shilling, and florin respectively) were used interchangeably in both countries. These coins were of the same material and size with near identical obverses, so could circulate outside their home country for some time, although the New Zealand coins were worth about 20% less, potentially resulting in a small gain (to those passing them) in Australia and a similar loss in New Zealand. * The 10 Syrian pound coin is often used as a slug in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
, as the shape and weight of this coin strongly resembles the 20 Norwegian krone coin. While not easy to find in Norway, the Syrian coins are still used in automated machines there with such frequency that
Posten Norge Posten Norge () is the name of the Norwegian postal service. The company, owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications had a monopoly until 2016 on distribution of letters weighing less than 50g throughout the country. There a ...
, the Norwegian postal service, decided to close many of their coins-to-cash machines on February 18, 2006, with plans to develop a system able to differentiate between the two coins. In the summer of 2005, a Norwegian man was sentenced to 30 days, suspended, for having used Syrian coins in arcade machines in the
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
of
Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...
. * The use of 100 won coins for the slug of
100 yen coin The is a denomination of Japanese yen. The current design was first minted in silver in 1959 and saw a change of metal in 1967. It is the second-highest denomination coin in Japan after the 500 yen coin. The current 100 yen coin is one of two d ...
s still commonly occurs, contributing to the conflict between Japanese and South Korean citizens. Similarly, until 2000, the South Korean 500 won coin could be modified to match the weight of the original
500 yen coin The is the largest denomination of Japanese yen coin issued for circulation. These coins were first struck in 1982 as the vending machine industry needed a higher valued coin for use in their machines. The denomination had previously been iss ...
which was otherwise identical in diameter and composition, and thereby used to fool weight-sensitive vending machines. * From the fall of the Soviet Union to the monetary reform in 1998, the Russian Federation often issued a commemorative one-
ruble The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. , currencies named ''rub ...
coin that was identical in size and weight to a 5 Swiss franc coin. For this reason, there have been several instances of these (worthless) ruble coins being used on a large scale to defraud automated vending machines in Switzerland. * In 1988, Thailand started minting a bimetallic
ten baht coin The bi-metallic Thailand ten-baht coin is a denomination coin of the Thai baht, the currency unit of Thailand. Like every standard-issue coin in Thailand, its obverse features the King of Thailand, Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun and prev ...
that is quite similar to the
2 euro coin The 2 euro coin (€2) is the highest-value euro coin and has been used since the introduction of the euro (in its cash form) in 2002. The coin is used in 22 countries (with 20 legally adopting it) with a collective population of about 341  ...
(first issue in 2002) in weight, size and appearance. Because it is worth substantially less, it has been used to fool cashiers and automated vending machines since the introduction of physical euro currency. * In the United Arab Emirates in August 2006, it became publicly known that the Philippine one-peso coin had the same size as the 1
United Arab Emirates dirham The dirham (; ar, درهم إماراتي, abbreviation: د.إ in Arabic, Dh (singular) and Dhs (plural) or DH in Latin; ISO code: AED) is the official currency of the United Arab Emirates. The dirham is subdivided into 100 . History The n ...
coin. With one dirham having a value nearly 14 times that of one Philippine peso, this has led to vending machine fraud in the United Arab Emirates.


Composition

Slugs are usually made from metals differing from those of real coins. While genuine US coinage is made from various
alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductilit ...
s of
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
,
nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...
, and
zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
,
Canadian coins The coins of Canada are produced by the Royal Canadian Mint and denominated in Canadian dollars ($) and the subunit of dollars, cents (¢). An effigy of the reigning monarch always appears on the obverse of all coins. There are standard images wh ...
are made mostly from steel with some copper and nickel, and
euro coins There are eight euro coin denominations, ranging from one cent to two euros (the euro is divided into a hundred cents). The coins first came into use in 2002. They have a common reverse, portraying a map of Europe, but each country in the eurozone ...
are made from steel, nickel, and
brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...
, slugs are frequently made from differing metals and alloys that are cheaper to obtain and mold, such as
aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
,
tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
, and
lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
. Slugs may or may not have the face details of real coins. Some slugs that are made to match the face details may not be immediately recognizable as such to handlers, and may enter circulation. Older, cheaper, and other low-tech machines that have fewer security measures are more likely to be defrauded by slug users. As an example, the fully mechanical mechanisms used in the traditional type of small vending machines that distribute candy or toys, and that can still often be found today at the entrances and/or exits of grocery stores and other retailers, can be fooled by cardboard coins. Many newer machines, especially those found in casinos, have additional detection that can identify more details of coins and detect those that do not resemble real coins.


See also

*
Coin counterfeiting Coin counterfeiting of valuable antique coins is common; modern high-value coins are also counterfeited and circulated.Coin rolling scams *
Counterfeit money Counterfeit money is currency produced without the legal sanction of a state or government, usually in a deliberate attempt to imitate that currency and so as to deceive its recipient. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or fo ...
*
Gresham's Law In economics, Gresham's law is a monetary principle stating that "bad money drives out good". For example, if there are two forms of commodity money in circulation, which are accepted by law as having similar face value, the more valuable com ...


References

{{reflist Coins Counterfeit money Exonumia Metallic objects