IRELAND'S NOISY COIN-CRUSHING MACHINE

The Central Bank has been forced to install sound-proofing because a machine recently installed to decommission old coins is too noisy. The bank routinely removes old and damaged coins from circulation in order the maintain the quality of euro coin.

Until recently, the money-making mint simply stored the coinage. But it has now installed an industrial-sized machine for destroying dud euros.

The machine uses high pressure to crush the coins — a process known as demonitising. After crushing, the coins are melted down.

So far, the machine has crushed a total of €263,279 in spare change. That’s €658,638 in actual coins since unfit coin started to be sent back in 2006.

Now a health and safety review of the machine has established that its noise levels are breaching levels acceptable in a working environment.

According to the Central Bank, "the decibel values of the machine when in operation is in excess of 80db, and the provision of a sound enclosure is required to maintain the safety standard in operation on the Mint production floor".

According to the Central Bank, the humble 2c coin is the coin most likely to find itself taken out of circulation.

To read the complete article, see: Coin-crushing machine proves headache for bank (www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/coin-crushing-machine
-proves-headache-for--215115.html)

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