Coinstar has struck deals with four retailers other than Amazon for this program, but Amazon is the only pure-play e-commerce company. The other retailers are Starbucks, Pier 1 Imports, Linens 'n Things and Hollywood Video.

With those brick-and-mortars, the output is generally a designed, barcode-bearing gift card that can be given to cashiers at those retailers. There are lots of security features possible in that kind of a card, but Amazon's anti-fraud hopes are limited to protecting the gift card number.

"That's also one of the advantages that Amazon has: No card is required. It's all facilitated through our existing network," said Peter Rowan, vice president of new business innovation at Coinstar.

Rowan said Coinstar wants to attract key leaders in various retail segments—both vertically and geographically—as partners. With brick-and-mortar retail partners, their cards are placed in machines near their stores. With Amazon, location is irrelevant as it poses "no geographic constraints."

Even with the ability to have different regional partners in different parts of the country, Rowan said that he wants to keep a cap on the number of partners the company works with and offers to consumers.

"There is a limit in terms of how many choices you want to give to a consumer in a self-service environment," Rowan said. "We don't need 30 retail partners in order to have a very compelling free offer. It's probably six or nine or something like that."

E-commerce sites such as Amazon are fine-tuning operations as they head into the holiday selling seasons, but some analysis suggests that a lot more work needs to happen, especially with checkout systems. To read more, click here.

By replacing its consumer charge, Coinstar officials expect to see a lot more people bringing in bags of coins. And there are huge amounts of coins out there today, with an ever-increasing percentage of them lying dormant. Coinstar estimates that the typical American household has about $99 in loose change lying around.

That's only the tip of the half-dollar, as they say. The U.S. Mint estimates that there are 255.9 billion coins in circulation. ("That's a pretty close approximation," as some Trekkies out there are saying.)

Just last year, the Mint created another 13 billion coins and that's on top of the 12 billion coins crafted in 2003.

Is the Mint factoring in the reduced need for coins as credit/debit and contactless grow? Somewhat.

"The demands of commerce are monitored closely and Americans will still use coins for the foreseeable future. The United States Mint produces coins to the demand of commerce," said Becky Bailey, the Mint's director of public affairs. "That's why the number of coins produced each year differs. When the economy is active, more coinage is needed and when the economy slows, our production of coinage slows."

The Amazon offering is currently available at approximately 3,500 locations and is expected to reach 5,000 by the end of the year. "We started rolling out weeks ago as a beta," said Amazon's Berman.

Retail Center Editor Evan Schuman can be reached at Evan_Schuman@ziffdavis.com.

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