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dmalvarado
It's either a calling card from a disgruntled employee, or a vibration dampening shim.
DoodleBuggy
The latter was my guess, or it could be used to insure a connection. Many years ago I used to have to wedge a piece of cardboard in my old MacBook battery bay to get it connect properly and stay connected.

Anyway when was the last time a Mac shipped with a SuperDrive? These are old machines.

Shank
2016, actually. Just recently phased out.

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/27/apple-discontinues-non-r...

DoodleBuggy
Interesting, so much like continuing to sell the ancient Mac Pro today, they sold the 2012 MacBook Pro for four more years.
Esau
I remember reading an article not too long ago indicating those machines were still selling well because of how upgradable they were. I will see if I can find a link.

EDIT: here it is: https://marco.org/2016/01/04/md101ll-a

eridius
It's a fix for noise created from vibrations. The most likely explanation is the drive was originally owned by someone else and they stuck it in there as a spacer for vibrations. I know the Gizmodo article claims at least one photo was from someone who bought it from an Apple Store, but that may simply be inaccurate, or maybe it was a refurb model.
PeterisP
Maybe a single technician working on repairing warranty/refurbished macbooks before they're re-sold simply had this "trick" as his way to make stuff work.
Jugurtha
Correction: the article claims theat the person claims they bought it from the Apple Store, not that they bought it from the Apple Store.
dsmithatx
Is it possible kids just stick coins in the superdrives or has anyone every verified these are vibration shims?
eridius
I was told there used to be an article online documenting exactly how to fix the vibration issue in this manner, but the article may now be gone (or at least, my friend doesn't know where it is anymore). So it seems extremely likely that it is just a vibration shim.
SchizoDuckie
So a device produced overseas has currency inside it of the person that buys it.

I'm call clickbait BS.

dumbdude123
About a year ago I chose to replace my old MacBooks superdrive with a second HD. I found a penny stuck under the plastic covering on mine as well. No penny could have fallen into the slot to get to where it is located, and the device is not refurbished.

The location of the coin is on top of the spindle motor, so I assumed that it was for vibration dampening, and that it was cheaper to put a penny on it than to cut a piece of metal to fit.

burntrelish1273
Replaced superdrive and HDD with SSDs and Sugru'ed up the slot long, long ago.

Pretty hilarious that people still bother with spinning polycarbonate or spinning rush.