# Would putting the wrong coin into a gumball machine break it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-putting-the-wrong-coin-into-a-gumball-machine-break-it/925649>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 16, 2020, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-putting-the-wrong-coin-into-a-gumball-machine-break-it/925649 "2020-11-16T00:54:45Z")\
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**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-putting-the-wrong-coin-into-a-gumball-machine-break-it/925649/19 "2020-11-16T20:09:06Z")

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Sixty-year old anecdote time!

I was at Golden Gate Park with my grandmother, at some pavilion that had gendering machines. One of the machines would, upon receipt of a quarter, drop a slug of plastic into a heated mold, and blow it into a little plastic bear, then dispense it. I had only a nickel, which I dropped in the slot. The machine returned my nickel.

Just to see what would happen, I kept inserting the nickel. After five tries, it kept the nickel. But it didn’t make a toy for me.

For all of you non-Americans, a quarter is a twenty-five cent coin, and a nickel is a five-cent piece. Also, WHY AREN’T YOU AMERICAN???

ETA: it was probably closer to fifty-five years. I didn’t have my multiplication tables learned when I was four.

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