Take one 60 metre deep, 15 hectare disused china-clay pit tucked away near the end of Cornwall, add a couple of biggish conservatories, rather a lot of plants and what do you get? “The Eighth Wonder of the World”, an immensely popular visitor attraction and a whopping cash problem. Open fully since 17^th March 2001, the £121 million Eden Project has welcomed more than 7 million visitors, employs 500 local residents and in its first three years brought over £613 million to the Cornish economy.

However, Eden is far more than a tourist’s day out, operated by Eden Project Ltd it is also home to the registered charity the Eden Trust, which is undertaking extensive and ground breaking research into man’s relationship with plants. All operating surpluses are covenanted back to the Trust.

There is no doubt that the Eden Project has been a resounding success and shows every sign of carrying on that way. It is a place where superlatives seem to grow on trees and a “we can do it” attitude shines brightly. As Chief Executive Tim Smit said, “Wouldn’t we all rather look back and say, ‘I’m glad I did’ rather than, ‘I wish I had’?” And so Eden thrives; now housing more than 200,000 plants of around 7,000 species; and, by the way, the conservatories are the largest in the world.

Eden’s visitors take much away with them, hence the burgeoning collection of industry awards; they also leave behind large volumes of cash, both coins and notes, which is shipped out daily but first needs to be rapidly and accurately processed. A team of nine full and part-time staff in two administration centres tackles the job every day of the year except for Christmas Eve and Christmas day; they have been relying on cash handling equipment from Cummins-Allison from the outset. Janine, Eden’s Head Cashier, has been with the project since it was a building site, she comments, “Cummins have been brilliant from day one helping in many ways such as site visits to train people on the machines. They are very supportive and are here very quickly if we should have a problem.”

    “The Eighth Wonder of the World”, open fully since March 2001, the £121 million Eden Project has welcomed more than 7 million visitors, employs 500 local residents and in its first three years brought over £613 million to the Cornish economy.

Cash is generated in three main areas accounting for approximately one-third of admissions, two-thirds of shop sales and more than three-quarters of all catering, including a lot of ice-creams! To cope, Eden uses both JetSort^® 4200 coin sorters and JetCount^® M4025 note counters. The JetSort counter is floor standing, extremely easy to operate and counts 3000 coins per minute, sorting accuracy is 99.995% and JetSort is the only high-speed sorter that stops on the exact count every time.  The euro-ready range includes both tabletop and floor standing models able to count and sort nine denominations at speeds of up to 6000 mixed coins per minute.

JetCount note counters are designed to be both compact and easy to use with clear and simple controls. They offer variable counting speeds up to 1600 notes per minute; other features include the ability to sense double and folded notes and auto start and restart as notes are added and removed.  

Janine concludes, “Dealing with this quantity of coins and notes is challenging and when the project first got going we felt a bit snowed under. Now it’s trust and confidence in the machines and the people to do the job quickly and accurately.”

So, everything in the garden is lovely........?

Eden’s visitors take much away with them - they also leave behind large volumes of cash, both coins and notes that need to be rapidly and accurately processed. A team of nine staff in two administration centres tackles the job every day of the year except for Christmas Eve and Christmas day; they have been relying on cash handling equipment from Cummins-Allison from the outset.