How to Build a Coin Sorter

Collecting coins can be a rewarding hobby, in more ways than one. Whether you are looking to find a specific style of coin in a large collection or looking to sort a large collection for rolling, a method of quickly dividing your coins by value can save you a lot of time. This simple design uses a series of shelves, with increasingly smaller holes until each shelf contains only one denomination.

Things You'll Need

• 3 1-foot-by-1-foot-by-1-inch pieces of wood
• 1 1-foot-by-10 1/2-inch-by1-inch piece of wood
• 5 11-inch-by-10 1/2-inch-by-1/2-inch pieces of plywood
• Power drill
• 1-inch bit
• 7/8-inch bit
• 3/4-inch bit
• 5/8-inch bit
• Sandpaper
• Screwdriver bit
• Screws
• Table saw

Instructions

Creating the Box

1. Create four half-inch-thick, half-inch-deep grooves on the 10 1/2-inch-wide piece of wood, across the 10 1/2-inch width, with the table saw. The grooves should be 2 inches, 4 inches, 6 inches and 8 inches from the bottom of the wood, respectively, and run parallel to the bottom of the board.

2. Create grooves to match those made in Step 1 on two of the 1-foot-by-1-foot boards.

3. Create a vertical groove in each of the 1-foot-by-1-foot grooved boards. The grooves should run perpendicular to the grooves made in Step 2 and be 1 inch from the front of the board. To ensure that these grooves line up, one must be 1 inch from the left end of one board, and the other should be 1 inch from the right end of the other board.

4. Screw the two grooved 1-foot-by-1-foot boards to the remaining 1-foot-by-1-foot board. The grooved boards should be placed atop the remaining board, running along opposing walls, with their grooves facing each other. The shape created will be a square missing its top bar.

5. Measure the distance between the two grooved boards, and trim the 10 1/2-inch-wide board so that it fits snugly between the two, and screw in place. The grooves on the three boards should all line up, so that there are four continuous grooves wrapping around the interior of the box, and the vertical groove should be on the end of box not closed off by the 10 1/2-inch board.

Making the Sorting Shelves

1. Create the half-dollar-sorting shelf by drilling several 1-inch holes in one piece of plywood. These holes will allow all quarters, nickels, pennies and dimes to fall through them.

2. Create the quarter-sorting shelf by drilling several 7/8-inch holes in one piece of plywood. These holes will allow all nickels, pennies and dimes to fall through them.

3. Create the nickel-sorting shelf by drilling several 3/4-inch holes in one piece of plywood. These holes will allow all pennies and dimes to fall through them. These holes may require some slight sanding to work. To test a hole, slide a penny and a nickel over it. The penny should fall all the way through, while the nickel should remain on the shelf.

4. Create the penny-sorting shelf by drilling several 5/8-inch holes in one piece of plywood. These holes will allow only dimes to fall through them, but will have to be sanded down. To test a hole, slide a penny and a dime over it. The dime should fall all the way through, while the penny should remain on the shelf.

Using Your Sorter

1. Slide the four drilled pieces of plywood into the grooves in the box, with the penny sorter on bottom, then the nickel sorter, then the quarter sorter and finally the half-dollar sorter.

2. Slide the piece of that plywood has not been drilled into the vertical groove to close off the box.

3. Pour your coins into the top of the sorter.

4. Shake vigorously. This will cause coins to continue falling through the various levels until they reach the shelf in which the holes are too small for them to pass through.

5. Remove the vertical piece of plywood, and remove the shelves one at a time. Each shelf will contain only the coins it is designed to single out, and your dimes will be at the bottom of the box.

References

• Coin Specifications
• Drill Bit Size Chart

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish