[Térence Grover] had a very special coin—a €1,000 commemorative piece only available to Monégasque nationals. If you want to flip one, normally you’d have to go snatch one up from somebody in Monaco—or you could just do it online!
Yes, he built an automated online coin flipper to flip this very special piece of coinage. A 12-volt solenoid is fired to flip the coin into the air. It then lands on its 3D-printed tray, where a Raspberry Pi-based computer vision system built with OpenCV and a TFLite model classifies whether the result is heads or tails via a machine learning algorithm. An iris mechanism operated by servo motor then centers the coin on the tray, so it sits back over the solenoid, ready to flip once again. [Térence] was eventually able to refine this simple homemade build to the point that it ran autonomously for a full 50,000 flips on a livestream without issue.
The mechanism in this build is not dissimilar to a coin flipper we’ve seen before. We’ve also explored the statistics involved, too. Video after the break.
Fascinating build! The coin flip mechanism reminds me of precision dispensing systems used in medical device manufacturing. The challenge with any rotational-to-linear conversion is always the same – minimizing play in the mechanism while keeping manufacturing costs reasonable. Curious what tolerances you ended up with between the flipper and the guide rails?
How well does it work with a US Half Dollar?
The half-dollar is going to fly, no fuel jet required. But the landing will be unpredictable.
About half the time
+1
Great article thank you
Yes, a major piece of automation.
Computer vision with an overengineered mechanism. sweet
Smart, funny and hot? Great coin flipper, subscribe! 🖖🏼
The blades mechanism is great
didn’t watch the video but now I’m wondering how much the machine couls posible rise if he set a price for each flip. somelike, pay 1 cent if you want to flip the coin,who knows, maybe we can buy another coin!
It’s a €2 coin allegedly worth €1,000. It can be bought on eBay for less than €400.
you’re the fun one at parties huh?
And it is almost worthless to collectors after 50k hits by a solenoid.
Or it becomes part of YouTube memorabilia and becomes worth a lot more than €1,000.
“IT’S A COIN FROM THAT 2026 YOUTUBE VIDEO THAT WAS HIT BY A SOLENOID A MILLION TIMES AND THROUGH A STRANGE CHAIN OF EVENTS (A COUPLE POLYMARKET BETS, TIK TOK VIDEOS AND TRUTH SOCIAL POSTS ETC.) CAUSED A WORLD WAR!!!111!!”.
Yeah, I’ll let myself out.
You’re from debate club I see!
He got here the same way the coin did.
I can’t call it for you…it wouldn’t be fair.
What’s the point of locating the coin on the captured image when you have a mechanism that will move it to a fixed location?
I suppose there is a validation awarded by NOT moving the coin mostly because you did NOT alter the result in any way, it is in the landing condition unmoved
damn right there is
Cool setup and implementation but man that guy is annoying AF to watch.
thx babe
Really? I rather liked the vid presentation style. Favourite part was the egg in a draw.
you’re in my heart forever. (also more physical comedy, noted.)
Never mind him.
Look, I need a giant size version to flip this huge penny I found in a cave…never mind transportation…my Two-Ton Gang will take care of that.
Signed, Harvey Dent
(Richard Moll voice off).