# Free money from Coke machines **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2000, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328 "2000-06-14T10:24:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/21 "2000-06-14T21:01:26Z")
I have it on good authority (OK I’ll admit it, it’s my friend’s little brother) that the saltwater technique is still viable in the newer machines if introduced via the bill changer. And NO, I didn’t tell the little vandal how to do it. I never will forget the first time I used the saltwater technique. I was on a night mission with a bunch of friends who were taking my word for it that it would work. Since, I had never actually done it myself, I was sort of expecting to be let down. That all went out the window as soon as the machine started spitting out cans of soda and change as if it were a Vegas slot machine! Somehow we managed to survive that one without getting shocked, because the machine was sizzling and sparking and all the lights were changing colors. In the end we had a bag so heavy with cans that we could hardly carry it! Luckily, the machine was kind of outta the way because it was rather loud from the cans falling down as fast as we could grab them, and the noise from all of us giggling like school girls! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/22 "2000-06-14T21:25:52Z")
In our college dorms, they took away the coke machine because people kept salting it. ---
**Author:** ![eggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@eggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eggo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/23 "2000-06-14T22:16:41Z")
my (late) friend kornfeid wrote an articlt about this very subject for the first issue of our little e-zine. check out the link on my sig if you want to read it. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/24 "2000-06-14T22:23:25Z")
You guys are just doing this because you know I haven’t had an aneurysm for about three years, right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Sheepshead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@Mr.Sheepshead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Sheepshead)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/25 "2000-06-14T22:45:00Z")
**Jebediah** , yes our (paper) money happens to be magnetic. Grab a good strong magnet and dangle a bill in front of it. Scares the shit out of people! ---
**Author:** ![JBurton99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea5d25/32.png) [@JBurton99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBurton99)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/26 "2000-06-15T04:24:03Z")
It’s not so much the paper that has something magnetic in it, but it’s the ink that is magnetic right? I thought i saw a show on the Discovery Channel, or The Learning Channel about that. Although that would make for a neat bar trick wouldn’t it? 😃 Hey, watch this bill scoot across the bar following my hand. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/27 "2000-06-15T04:24:59Z")
My comment about this thread being shut down for describing criminal methods was intended as a joke. It was a reference to the closing of the money laundering thread a few weeks back. Other posters and myself responded to a question about how money was “laundered” by describing how organized crime outfits did so by operating overseas banks and casinos. The thread was closed done with the stated reason that the board could be liable for any crimes committed with methods described here. I then started a thread pointing out how unlikely it was that any poster was going to commit a crime that had the prerequisite of buying a Las Vegas casino or Cayman Island bank. Someone deciding to salt down a Pepsi machine on the other hand - that I can see happening. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/28 "2000-06-15T05:11:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > The HP printers had to be installed with a microchip after that to detect when money was being printed, and black it out > \*\* Soooo. If I buy a HP color laser (I should be so blessed) it has a “microchip” designed to “detect” money being printed. Really?! Do you have a cite for this. Pardon me for being cynical but this smells like a UL to me. Maybe it’s true but I can’t imagine how they would accomplish this feat of detection and implement in hardware economically. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/29 "2000-06-15T05:20:27Z")
How strong does this magnet have to be? I have a heavy and powerful (1 inch wide with 2.5 inch diameter)magnet from a stripped speaker assembly on my metal filing cabinet and just for laughs tried it per your suggestion with a 1 and a new 20 dollar bill. Absolutely no attraction. > [@](#): > > \*\* > **Jebediah** , yes our (paper) money happens to be magnetic. Grab a good strong magnet and dangle a bill in front of it. Scares the shit out of people! > \*\* ---
**Author:** ![gillygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@gillygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gillygirl)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/30 "2000-06-15T06:22:18Z")
“were magnetic strips put in u.s. currency so the feds could track your money?” url: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5\_030.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_030.html) (sorry, dont know how to paste links and all that fancy stuff yet LOL) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/31 "2000-06-15T10:15:57Z")
Astro: I worked in a photocopy place with a colour copier which would block out not only money, but passports and even postage stamps. I have no idea how it recognized them, but it did. One time Joe, the copy guru, had to make a copy of something with the figure of a bill on it (for perfectly legitimate reasons), and was unable to do it. Go, and doubt no more. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/32 "2000-06-15T11:55:31Z")
- - - Or maybe not. The scanner I have right next to my computer scans bills at 1200 dpi just like everything else. The cheesy photo-chop software edits it (or not) just the same as anything else, and the $129 printer prints it out, just like anything else. In this case I put someone else’s head on it, and I didn’t bother to print the back side, but all that doesn’t seem like anything difficult. - Also in St Louis, a 16 yr-old got busted for counterfeiting currency using exactly this method some months back. - Also the grocery store I work at has had a few instances of people trying to spend computer-printed twenties; two of those attempts were sucessful, even though the printing on the fake bills looked pale and fuzzy when compared next to real ones. - MC ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/33 "2000-06-15T12:12:41Z")
\ ***Piig:** I didnt “rob” the machines. I dont think i should be perceived as a **crim** just beacuse i was intuative enough discover the lack of security on coke machines!! Plus i was 12 and **a fistful of dollars to me was the equivalent of a million pounds!** i was **right chuffed** when i found them. I always put the money back! honest **guv!!** heheheheheee… \* A little translation, please:[ul] [li]“crim” - criminal; OK, I got that.[/li][li]“right chuffed” - surprised?[/li][li]“a fistful of dollars to me was the equivalent of a million pounds” - funny, I didn’t think US bills (notes as you said before) weighed that much. Oh, you mean exchange rate. Hmmm, even 30 USD would be only 20 pounds. (I forgot you use kilometers to measure weight/mass. Or is that Kelvins?)[/li][li]“guv” - governor? Nope, just a computer programmer.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/34 "2000-06-15T16:02:41Z")
> [@](#): > > and the $129 printer prints it out, just like anything else I think the problem was that the HP printer(s) in question were able to print at a high enough resolution that the bill was actually passable and fairly indistinguishable from a real bill. A printer that can’t make a decent copy of a bill due to color or resolution wouldn’t need such protection on it. Of course, by “decent copy”, I mean one that would fool a bank, vending machine/bill changer or a Federal agent, not one that will pass under the nose of a bored Safeway cashier. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/35 "2000-06-15T16:43:44Z")
I had heard it was a Cannon printer, not an HP. The model number was either 510 or 810. And I checked the snopes website and it wasn’t listed there, so maybe there is some truth to it. ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/36 "2000-06-15T17:35:34Z")
> [@](#): > > **I always put the money back! honest guv!!** How exactly did you accomplish this? If you pulled out the dollar through those two little holes you described in the OP, it would be quite difficult, if not, impossible, to put the dollar **back through** those same holes. If you fed the dollar back into the machine, then you would be stealing a can of coke, since, the dollar you used already came from the machine. So, how did you do it? ---
**Author:** ![Suspicious\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Suspicious\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suspicious_mind)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/37 "2000-06-15T18:30:35Z")
right chuffed - extremely pleased with oneself 12 year old with 20 quid - surely the richest kid in the playground guv - governor. Much loved slang of cockneys, used to address someone respectfully. e.g. Look guv, I can ‘av a look at yer drains on Thursd’, but I can’t get the materials for the roof until next week. honest guv - purposefully ironic admission of guilt. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/38 "2000-06-15T20:43:35Z")
There is another way, or at least there used to be a way to get money AND stuff out of any vending machine. I don’t however think it works now. Take the clear packing tape that is as wide as a dollars width. Take two pieces of tape about 1’-1.5’ long. tape to one side and then place them together so that there is no sticky side. this makes a bill with basically a long “string” on it. then let it run through the machine and pull back out. this will give change and product. but liek I said I don’t think it works anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/39 "2000-06-15T21:57:20Z")
Is it possible that the bills were put there by employees? One place I worked, we had a Coke machine. We kept the profit, and the Coke distributer brought more sodas and kept their share (or something like that). Anyway, one of our guys had the keys to stock the machine, and would often open it up to give people change who didn’t have any. I don’t believe the machine we had took dollar bills, so much of the change went back into the machine, but the bills were left somewhere in the machine. Maybe the machines you speak of, didn’t take dollar bills. © ---
**Author:** ![Piig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6bbea6/32.png) [@Piig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Piig)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2000, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328/40 "2000-06-19T16:46:06Z")
Vandal, In some cases it may have been the case that some of the dollars jumped of their own accord into my pocket or at least into the slot of the change machine that stood in the corner of the hotel games room. In fact, oh yeah, thats what happened all the time! BTW, been at Le Mans this last week, it was first class! Any of you lot been b4?? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money-from-coke-machines/22328.md?page=3)