Amazon has thrown a handful of its online coins at its US customers.

The bookseller has handed 500 "Amazon Coins" to each of its Kindle Fire customers.

500 coins are worth $5 and can be used to buy apps and games and also virtual items within games used on the ereader.

To further tempt Kindle punters Amazon is offering ten per cent discounts on future coin purchases.

Although US only for now we would expect the system to be offered elsewhere in the world soon.

The Coins, for now at least, appear more like a loyalty card system than a fully-fledged currency. We assume Amazon hopes to boost the number of apps developed for its hardware as well as increase customer loyalty. We covered the original announcement two weeks ago.

Software developers will still receive their 70 per cent revenue share from sales.

The official Amazon statement is here.

Image credit: Amazon