The Coinstar_® Story

The idea for Coinstar came from Jens Molbak while a graduate student at Stanford University. Jens was sitting in his dorm room one night when he began thinking about the jar of coins sitting on top of his dresser. He realized there really wasn't a good way to put those coins to use.

In 1989, Jens began interviewing supermarket shoppers as part of a graduate school project. What he learned from those shoppers confirmed his suspicions: he wasn't alone. People have a lot of change at home and really don't care to go through the trouble of sorting, wrapping, and rolling those coins in order to take them to the bank.

Two years later, with his Stanford degree in hand, Jens founded Coinstar. Two classmates who shared his goal of creating an easy way for people to turn their accumulated coins into cash joined him. They got to work and eventually succeeded in creating a machine that could quickly count change while filtering out the nuts, bolts, paper clips, and other "dirt" that is often found in piggy banks and coin jars.

By 1992, Jens' new company was ready to test out their new machine in the real world. Coinstar's machines were installed in four San Francisco Bay Area supermarkets. Consumers loved the service prompting Jens and company to embark on an ambitious expansion plan that resulted in Coinstar being named one of the fastest growing companies in the United States.

Jens stepped down as chairman of the company he founded in June of 2001, and although Jens is no longer involved in the day-to-day operations at Coinstar, his vision is still very much alive.