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Dec 3, 2010
Foreign coins put in MRT machine
SOME commuters who used a particular ticket machine at Pasir Ris MRT station on Monday used - knowingly or otherwise - 20 euro cent coins instead of Singapore dollar coins when buying tickets.
The foreign coins, which look and feel similar to the brass-coloured Singapore dollar coin, are worth only 34 Singapore cents.
Other commuters, expecting refunds of S$1 when they turned in their recyclable single-trip tickets, received these 20 euro cent coins instead.
SMRT has since fixed the malfunctioning ticket machine.
An SMRT spokesman explained that general ticket machines have a built-in coin-accepter unit, which determines each coin's authenticity by checking its size, weight and type of metal. It normally rejects foreign coins, so instances like this are rare, she said.
Coin-tech, which distri-butes the American-made coin-accepter units, said it had tested its product and the malfunction was an isolated incident.
Could someone have gone to money changers to collect 20 euro cent coins to save on train fares? A check with money changers here showed that few kept large stocks of this denomination.
Coin collector Edwin Choo, 37, put the machine's confusion down to the similarity between the two coins.
ELIZABETH SOH
Dec 3, 2010
Foreign coins put in MRT machine
SOME commuters who used a particular ticket machine at Pasir Ris MRT station on Monday used - knowingly or otherwise - 20 euro cent coins instead of Singapore dollar coins when buying tickets.
The foreign coins, which look and feel similar to the brass-coloured Singapore dollar coin, are worth only 34 Singapore cents.
Other commuters, expecting refunds of S$1 when they turned in their recyclable single-trip tickets, received these 20 euro cent coins instead.
SMRT has since fixed the malfunctioning ticket machine.
An SMRT spokesman explained that general ticket machines have a built-in coin-accepter unit, which determines each coin's authenticity by checking its size, weight and type of metal. It normally rejects foreign coins, so instances like this are rare, she said.
Coin-tech, which distri-butes the American-made coin-accepter units, said it had tested its product and the malfunction was an isolated incident.
Could someone have gone to money changers to collect 20 euro cent coins to save on train fares? A check with money changers here showed that few kept large stocks of this denomination.
Coin collector Edwin Choo, 37, put the machine's confusion down to the similarity between the two coins.
ELIZABETH SOH
