This invention relates to coin wrappers.
Countries throughout the world have long included coins in several denominations. The most popular denominations in the United States are the quarter, dime, nickel, and penny. These coins are used daily by businesses and individuals. In small quantities, coins are easily stored and transported. In larger quantities the coins become bulky, heavy, and messy to use or store. A common practice by businesses and individuals is to contain large numbers of coins in “rolls”. Coins of common denomination are contained or rolled in formed coin wrappers. The formed coin wrappers are made to hold a particular number of coins to equal a given dollar amount. For example, quarters are rolled into $10 rolls, dimes in $5 rolls, nickels in $2 rolls, and pennies in $0.50 rolls. This makes for easier storage and transport, and easy determination of total amounts of currency.
Coin wrappers are provided to the consumer, whether a business or individual, as individual coin wrappers. During manufacture the individually formed coin wrappers intended for bulk sale are formed from a continuous web of paper stock by printing, rolling, gluing, flattening, cutting and boxing. As they are cut, the individual wrappers often fall into a disorganized heap that must later be sorted and organized for packaging. Upon packaging the wrappers are typically inserted, aligned, and stacked in boxes. This method of packaging is labor intensive.
Therefore, a need exists for a neat, compact, and user friendly grouping of coin wrappers.
A first embodiment of a first aspect of the invention is a longitudinally continuous rolled web of flattened formed coin wrappers with longitudinally spaced, laterally extending lines of perforation on the web between individual wrappers effective for permitting hand separation of wrappers from the web along each line of perforation.
A second embodiment of the first aspect of the invention is a longitudinally elongated rolled web of flattened tubing defining superimposed upper and lower planar panels, the web having a plurality of longitudinally spaced laterally extending lines of perforation which extend through both the upper and lower panels so as to permit hand separation of individual lengths of tubing along each line of perforation.
A second aspect of the invention is a method of manufacturing an article of commerce. The method includes the steps of (a) cutting a longitudinally elongated master web into a plurality of longitudinally elongated strips each having first and second lateral side portions, (b) forming at least one of the strips into a longitudinally elongated tube by overlapping and joining the first and second lateral side portions of the strip, (c) flattening the tube so as to define (i) a pair of longitudinally extending parallel crease lines along the longitudinal length of the tube, and (ii) superimposed upper and lower planar panels, (d) perforating the flattened tube to create a plurality of uniformly longitudinally spaced laterally extending lines of perforation which extend through both the upper and lower panels of the tube so as to permit hand separation of individual lengths of tubing along each line of perforation, and (e) rolling the perforated flattened tube into a roll.
A third aspect of the invention is a method of creating a roll of coins. The method includes the steps of (a) obtaining a longitudinally continuous rolled web of flattened formed coin wrappers with longitudinally spaced, laterally extending lines of perforation on the web between individual wrappers, (b) separating a single coin wrapper from the web along a line of perforation, and (c) inserting a predetermined number of coins having the same size, shape and denomination into the separated coin wrapper.
Nomenclature
As utilized herein, the phrase “formed coin wrapper” means a tube formed from sheet stock.
As utilized herein, the phrase “flattened,” when used to describe a formed coin wrapper, means a radially compressed formed coin wrapper whereby a pair of longitudinally extending parallel crease lines are formed along the length of the coin wrapper and the coin wrapper defines superimposed, substantially flat upper and lower panels.
Construction
As shown in
The preferred process used to construct the roll 10 begins with a master roll (not shown) of paper sheet stock (not shown). The preferred sheet stock is Kraft paper. As the master roll is unrolled it proceeds through a cutting mechanism (not shown) that longitudinally divides the master roll of paper into individual strips of paper (not shown). The lateral dimension of the strips of paper depends on the coin size to be inserted in the individual coin wrappers 21. The individual strips are then fed through a printing mechanism (not shown) to apply the appropriate indicia to the outside of the individual formed coin wrappers 21 (e.g., $5 dimes, 25/$1 Euro, etc.). Alternatively, the master roll may be printed prior to cutting or the flattened tube, as described below, may be printed. The individual strips then proceed into a fold and glue mechanism (not shown). The fold and glue mechanism folds the longitudinal edges 23 and 24 together and glues one edge onto the other edge to form a longitudinally continuous tube (unnumbered). The longitudinally continuous tube is then flattened. After flattening, the longitudinally continuous tube is perforated laterally from a first edge 23 to a second edge 24 along the longitudinally continuous tube at a predetermined longitudinal spacing to form lines of perforation 22 defining individual coin wrappers 21.
Use
The roll 10 can be packaged and shipped to the consumer. The consumer then unrolls the roll 10 until a leading individual coin wrapper 26 is unrolled from the roll 10 and presented for dispensing. The roll 10 may be enclosed in a container (not shown) for storage and dispensing, such as a cardboard box (not shown) with an appropriately sized and positioned slit (not shown) in one end for the leading coin wrapper 26 to protrude. At the line of perforation 22 between the unrolled leading coin wrapper 26 and the rest of the roll 10, the consumer may pull the leading coin wrapper 26 at a lateral angle relative to the roll 10 so as to disengage the leading coin wrapper 26 from the roll 10 along the line of perforation 22. The individual coin wrapper 21 may then be unflattened and filled with the proper coins (not shown).
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/428,292, filed Nov. 22, 2002.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60428292 | Nov 2002 | US |