Another Singaporean launches coin-sorting wallet on Kickstarter

Maybe they were late to the Kickstarter boat?

Mandy How | December 05, 2016, 03:19 PM

By now, most of us would have heard of the KIN wallet, a 'smart' wallet that sorts out your coins from your notes, designed by a trio of young industrial designers from Singapore:

Source: Kickstarter Source: Kin Kickstarter

Today, the revolutionary product has raised some $200,468 on Kickstarter, despite only having a goal of $4,000.

 

Enter the Numistar

With the funding period of the KIN wallets coming to an end on Dec. 1, Kickstarter has since seen a similar product -- Numistar -- which also hails from Singapore.

Source: Kickstarter Source: Numistar Kickstarter

Even though Numistar is one month slower to the market, it has more features than the KIN wallet, including RFID Protection to deter wireless identity theft, a secret compartment for your cash, as well as numerous nifty receptacles for SIM cards, spare keys, and the like.

Source: Kickstarter Source: Numistar Kickstarter

Source: Kickstarter Source: Numistar Kickstarter

The people behind Numistar have also come up with two other variations of the coin-separating wallet: the Globetrotter (for travelling) and the Paperboy (which sorts coin denominations), although the latter has yet to be confirmed.

Source: Kickstarter Source: Kickstarter

paperboy Source: Kickstarter

 

With almost identical unique selling points, some have started speculating on Singapore's Kickstarter Facebook page about the possible copying of ideas:

facebook-kickstarter

kickstarter-comment

 

Update: Eden, the founder of Feb 29 Bags (the enterprise behind Numistar) has gotten in touch with Mothership.sg regarding this Kickstarter campaign.

According to him, a sneak peak of the Globetrotter (one of the wallets available as part of the Numistar kickstarter campaign) was released in September this year in order to test the "price point, design, and waiting period". It was shared as a Facebook post:

feb-29-1

The KIN's Kickstarter campaign was launched later than September.

The Facebook post however, did not name the Globetrotter outright and its projected price ($79.90/$89.90) was also different from the amount stated on Kickstarter ($138 for future retail, -30% for early backers). It also did not make mention of any coin-sorting mechanism.

In a separate post, the page also alluded to a crowd-funding project, though it did not explicitly point to the Numistar/Globetrotter:

feb29

 

Top image from Kickstarter

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.