DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0019] As can be seen by reference to the drawings, and in particularly to FIG. 1, the first version of the spring loaded coin holding apparatus that forms the basis of the present invention is designated generally by the reference number 10. As shown in FIG. 3, the apparatus comprises in general a main housing unit 11, a plurality of dispensing units 12, and a cover unit 13 that captively retains a portion of the dispensing units 12 within the main housing unit 11. These units will now be described in seriatim fashion.

[0020] Still referring to FIG. 3, it can be seen that the housing unit 11 comprises an elongated generally thin flat housing member 20 having an upper surface 21 provided with one row of different sized cylindrical recesses 22 23 24 25 formed adjacent one of the long sides 26 of the elongated housing member as viewed from left to right and another row of different sized cylindrical recesses 25′ 24′ 23′ 22′ formed adjacent to the other of the long sides 27 of the elongated housing member 20.

[0021] It should further be noted that like numbered recesses have the same dimensions and the diameter of the recesses 22 23 24 and 25 correspond to the diameters of a dime 103, quarter 104, nickel 102, and penny 101, respectively in U.S. coins.

[0022] As can also best be seen by reference to FIG. 3, the plurality of dispensing units 12 each generally includes a spring member 30 and a disc shaped pusher plate member 31 wherein, each group of individual plate members 32 33 34 35 and 32′ 33′ 34′ and 35′ has diameters corresponding to the diameters of a dime 103, quarter 104, nickel 102 and penny 101.

[0023] In addition, as is clearly shown in FIG. 3, the cover unit 13 comprises a contoured cover member 40 having a group of arcuate apertures 42 43 44 45 formed on one of the elongated sides 46 of the cover member 40 and another group of arcuate apertures formed on one of the elongated sides 47 of the cover member 40 and another group of arcuate apertures 45′ 44′ 43′ 42′ formed on the other-elongated side 47 of the cover member 40 wherein all of the apertures 42 42′ etc., extend inwardly beneath the top surface 41 of the cover member 40 as indicated by the dashed lines.

[0024] These extensions of the arcuate apertures are designated generally as 49 and are provided to form a registration stop to align the coins 101 102 etc., over their respective push plate member 35 35′ 34 34′ etc., to captively engage the coins between the push plate members 31 generally and the underside of the cover member 40 in a well recognized fashion as depicted in FIG. 2.

[0025] It should also be appreciated at this juncture that the extensions 49 of the arcuate apertures 42 43 etc., are dimensioned to overlie a portion of the pusher plate members 31 to captively retain the pusher plate members 31 between the cover member 40 and the main body 20 in a well recognized fashion.

[0026] Turning now to FIG. 4, it can be seen that in the alternate version of the preferred embodiment, the spring loaded coin holding apparatus 10′ has the coins 104 103 102 101 arranged in a descending order of value which is a more ordered sequence that most users would readily adapt to after a short period of time; and, again that orientation is reversed on the opposite side so that the user knows without looking that as long as the coins are in an upright position, they will be dispensed from the front of the apparatus 10′ in a specific order.

[0027] Although only an exemplary embodiment of the invention has been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the following claims.