CHICAGO – NAMA recently mobilized a strong grassroots effort to protect the vending and refreshment services industry, other coin-acceptance industries, and customers from potential changes in coin currency by the U.S. Mint.
Foremost among its grassroots activity, on June 24, NAMA filed official comments with the U.S. Mint which explain that changes in metallic content, shape, or size could require actions ranging from a recalibration in vending machines to the installation of new coin-accepting equipment, with a potential cost from $100-$500 per vending machine.
In the weeks leading up to the comment filing, NAMA mobilized its membership through direct contact and email action alerts requesting that members express their concern via letters to the U.S.
Mint about the impact of the potential changes – to which more than 500 messages were sent. In addition, members of the “Don’t Change our Change” Coalition (founded by NAMA and the American Amusement Machine Association) sent 341 messages to U.S. Mint.
“With an estimated seven million vending machines across the country, the cost of these changes could amount to $3.5 billion for our industry, negatively impacting the entire vending and food service channel and its consumers,” said Eric Dell, NAMA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs.
“The metallic content changes could create a financial burden on small business and could change the acceptance rates of coins. Thus, NAMA and Coalition partners strongly urged the Mint to consider the impact on the vending industry in any recommendation to Congress.
The importance of this issue is what prompted us to work hard to get people involved and express the wide-ranging impact this would have on so many industries,” Dell continued.
Source: NAMA – National Automatic Merchandising Association
