a coin sorter for examining the genuineness of plural coin denominations and for sorting the coins has an ac bridge circuit which produces bridge output signals corresponding to different denominations of coins , a time - sharing signal generation circuit in the form of a microcomputer , for producing time - sharing signals , a switching circuit for time - multiplexing the bridge output signals in sequence to one output lead in response to the time - sharing signals , and a single amplifier and comparator which receives the sequentially provided bridge output signals , amplifies and compares them to reference signals , and provides an indication of the coin denomination .