...thick? superstitious? just plain bonkers?

Seen on a sign posted on a railway station ticket machine this afternoon - I forget the precise wording, but it was along the lines of:

"do not rub coins against the body of the machine before putting them in, it won't make any difference to whether it's accepted or not".

I was quite stunned TBH - who on earth ever rubs a coin against a machine to try and improve the chance that it'll be accepted? It's such a bizarre idea I worry about what else might be going on inside the head of someone who thinks along those lines. They probably get to vote FFS!

Is this a common superstition or what?

 

Believe it or not its fairly common. Well it seems to be around here anyways. If a fruit machine doesnt accept a coin give it a rub and in normally makes it work. I am not sure if in old machines with old coins (like phoneboxes etc) it would help with coin readers or something but I have seen a lot of people doing it.
And I must confess I do it myself of parking machines.... And 9 out of 10 times it works.

 

same here, done it before and it does sometimes work. Might be something to do with the weight?

 

Yep ! Me too ! No idea why I did it but it has worked once or twice.

 

Weird... but still much more likely to be random chance, you could try warming the coin by shoving it up your ar*e for all the good it would do

 

This rarely works, And depending what coin it is you sometimes short change yourself.

 

The problem with that approach is that if the coin still doesn't get accepted, nobody behind you in the queue will swap it for you

 

You've answered your own question.

Personally I like to rub my keys down the side of my scoob to make sure that it will start first time

 

Doesn't that scratch the foil?

 

I always thought it was something to do with static...

 

I used to work on fruit machines, and believe it or not, it CAN make a difference. The coin readers in the slot can reject the coin according to electronice readings based on metal composition, shape, weight etc. Sometimes, if there is grease or some other contaminant on the coin, the mech can mis-read then reject, and as such, a quick rub MAY make the machine accept it but prob only one in ten.

In fairness, it is 8 years since I last fixed a coin mechanism, but old habits die hard with customers, so I bet they're still doing it!

On another note, I did 5 years for Rank fixing machines in bingo halls, motorway services and casino's and some people actually LICK the coin if it gets rejected, and that sometimes works too!!!! But EEEuuurrcchhhh!!!!

 

lol, I wouldn't go so far as to lick a coin but you've somehow made me have a flashback to putting a two pence piece in my mouth when I was a kid, it didn't taste very nice

I have to confess that I do the scratchy thing but that's because it has worked 100% of the time for me (unless it's a dodgy coin). Coin doesn't take, give it a rub on the side of the machine and it works, I have even spat on one and that seemed to get it to work (eugh, I sucked that 2p wtf was on that!?)

 

I've done the licky thing.