U.S.S. YANCEY AKA-93

Ken Grooms's Navy

A story for the USS Yancey

The Ten Yen Vend

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During the 50s, in Japan, the Yen was exchanged at a rate of 360 yen to the dollar. In my last story, "Mess Cook'n", I described the mess deck, but I think I forgot to mention an important part of the forward end of the mess deck. There stood, painted in Chinese Red, was a coke machine. I don't remember if it dispensed bottles or cups, but that is unimportant. It was part of the extra fare that we had from the "Gee-dunk". I believe we could get candy bars and maybe ice cream, but that was about it except for shaving needs etc.

First a little background to establish a little of my credibility in the field of vending. After I left the Navy and became an Engineer, I worked briefly for a vending machine manufacturer named Vendo. We designed all sorts of vending machines and associated equipment that was best described as gadgetry. One Engineer described our work as trying to stay ahead of the guys that stayed awake at nights trying to figure out how to fool a vending machine. The dollar bill changer was one such machine. We had developed a changer that read the magnetic ink on a dollar, scanned the proper color, size and rejected those not meeting the test. The machine was ready for the public, but first we put it in our cafeteria for a valid test. After that, one of the shop technicians taped a scotch tape with a long copper wire on the bill, sent it on its way to test, then proceeded to collect his change and retrieve his dollar by using fishing techniques to coax the dollar back - he was successful. We changed the design after that.

This is too much background, but you get the idea. On the Yancey the coke machine was good training for those wanna-be-vending deceivers. It was found that the machine would provide a free coke sometimes when banged on the side aided by a good roll of the ship. Then the Honcho of the wanna-bes came up with the observation that a ten-yen piece was about the size of a quarter. You not only got a coke, but you also got change all for 3.6 cents (10 Yen) invested. Not bad. I think now I can safely say that the slug rejecters of today have been refined where they can distinguish between the weight of a quarter and a ten-yen piece. Also, I know for a fact that the magnetic properties of the false coin are checked - I own a coke machine that does that. So, the good old days of the 3.6 cent coke are gone.

More later,

Ken Groom (K.D.)

Submitted 2/10/07
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