I always see in the movies that when they hang up a pay phone, you hear a coin drop. What’s the reason for this?
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When you would fund the pay phone with the appropriate coinage, there was a sort of escrow relay that would hold the coin until it was verified you had connected and completed a call.
If the line connected and you made a call, then when the phone hung back on the receiver, it would signify the end of the call and the coin would drop into the coin box.
If the call wasn’t completed, it would return the coin to the refund chute.
The coin goes into a sort of “escrow” holding. That is it doesn’t fall all the way into the bank, in case the call isn’t completed. Instead it’s held in this escrow feature until after the call, when the coin is dropped into the bank. If a call doesn’t complete, the coin falls into a different mechanism for the coin return.
It is so you don’t get charged if the call isn’t completed. It holds your coin in a special place until it is determined if the call has gone through.
When you put in coins they are not automaticalyl dropped to the main hold, because you haven’t used them up. When make a call they gradually drop one by one as you use them up.
When you put down the phone, the coin currently in use is “lost” (you pay for each period started and lose the rest even if you don’t use it up.) The coins not used are given back
Also in my country the machine would give change, if you put in 5 guilders, the machine would show how long you were calling for and then if you had a short call, it would drop down your change.
This made me feel very old for this first time in my life, what the.
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Wait…are you stuck in the 90’s?
Other people have mentioned how you could fool a US payphone into thinking the call was not completed.
Here in the UK for a period there was a much more mechanical way than using tones. Way back in the 1990s, you could take a metal kebab stick and put it in the coin return slot and push up. We used to ring competition lines and use the same pound over and over again.
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Also, what is a pay phone?
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