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Kevin Kent

Swecoin US, Inc

(401) 848-2000

sales@swecoinus.com

SWECOIN ANNOUNCES BREAKTHROUGH IN THERMAL TICKET MEDIA

Leading Printer Manufacturer Certifies Sharkskin™ Media for Thermal Ticket Printers

MIDDLETOWN, RI -- October 20, 2003 – Swecoin US Inc., the world’s leading designer of small footprint, highly reliable thermal kiosk printer solutions, announced today that it has certified a ground-breaking new thermal media that will revolutionize the way paper is used in all thermal ticket printing. Sharkskin™ is a waterproof and tear-resistant thermal media that will last longer than any thermal ticket media available on the market today.

The new polypropylene Sharkskin™ media was tested and certified for a major themed-based amusement park located in the Midwestern part of the United States. The park has deployed Swecoin's thermal ticket printer/encoder machine (TTPM2) to print out ticket access passes to the various park attractions and currently has 50 thermal ticket printers installed.

“We are very excited about this new thermal media as we believe it will truly revolutionize how we print tickets in the future,” said Norman Armstrong, senior product engineer at Swecoin US Inc. “We put this media through a very in-depth testing process – I even carried a printed, magnetically encoded ticket for 11 days and put it through the rigors of everyday life – and the data encrypted on the magstripe side and the bar code printed on the thermal side were read as easily as if it were a new ticket. It’s the first and only of its kind.”

In partnership with Graphic Controls, the Sharkskin™ media has been tested and certified for use in thermal ticket printing for at least 40,000 cuts. It supports bar coding and magnetic encoding and will last at least 10 times longer than the traditional thermal ticket media. Sharkskin™ media is also denser than traditional ticket media and provides bolder, crisper images.

Swecoin TTPM 2 is a combined magnetic card encoder and thermal printer that encodes information on a magnetic stripe on one side and prints graphics, barcodes and text on the thermal side of the card. The TTPM2 has a built-in cutter for ticket separation and can print bitmap graphics and bar codes. Printed text can be oriented in 90 degree steps and print data can be separated into fixed and variable fields for optimized throughput. The TTPM 2 is commonly used in transportation, parking and access control applications and is an ideal solution for fast, reliable ticketing using bar codes or magnetic stripes as information carriers.

Swecoin also offers a complete family of thermal kiosk printers, ranging from 58mm-wide to letter-size and are widely known for their small footprint, reliability and durable, modular design. Swecoin thermal kiosk printers are used in all manner of unattended applications, including receipt printing, coupons, HR applications, and general Internet/web site access. With more than 150,000 installations worldwide, Swecoin printers are generally considered the best thermal printers for unattended applications available on the market today.

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With world headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Swecoin AB manufactures, markets, and distributes high quality open frame direct thermal printers for unattended use throughout the world. Swecoin US, located in Middletown, RI, operates exclusively in North and South America. Swecoin was founded in 1983 and is privately held. For more information, please visit www.swecoinus.com.

*Sharkskin is a trademark of Graphic Control / Tyco International.