[yrral]

Fcc photos of the coin pcb here [1]

I think that the coils that drive the magstripe are only activated when the buttons to the left or right of the stripes are depressed (e.g. by the process of swiping).

Also, I believe coin only transmits track 2 [2]. Why it looks like there's 2 coils is curious to me as well.

[1] https://fccid.io/document.php?id=2397353

[2] https://support.onlycoin.com/hc/en-us/articles/204263414-Coi...

Some merchants require your full name (also known as Track 1 card data) as a part of the transaction process. Coin does not transmit Track 1 data and may be rejected at the point of payment.

[joezydeco]

It seems like a logical thing to do, especially when you're trying to a) save power and b) time the speed of the coil's "stripes" to make the reader think it's seeing a physical card. It's probably also the source of a lot of rejected swipes.

Conductive rubber pads and/or membrane switches are always a bad thing. Necessary for this design, but they'll always fail you in the end.

[mildweed]

I certainly have been rejected because of the lack of Track 1 data. One merchant told me as much.