rtmccurdy wrote:I have two Mills Extraordinary slots that have a gold award. #885517 on the left is original (untouched) 5-cent 2-part with gold award, 2-view jackpot, orig. chrome, and star side vendor (have the vendor---need the inner linkage!). The other I restored (#438034 10-cent, originally untouched) is a 2-part casting, single view jackpot, and had a gold award mechanism on the lower casting but the mech and orig. reel strips were not gold award. Both have original paper eagle front marquees. All numbers matched so perhaps Mills included the gold award mech for future upgrade?? Wasn't there a discussion on whether or not Mills created a chrome Extraordinary in the past?
Thanks for posting those pics. I'm particularly interested to see the original paint job on the untouched Extraordinary, especially the use of red - for the early QT Firebird that I'm restoring, I picked a shade of blue intended to also be used on the Extraordinary to make them a pair, and the same with a red in case it was appropriate - which I didn't remember finding any trace of on the first early Extraordinary that I restored years ago. I was also surprised to see the finished oak bases, as I think my first Extraordinary had an originally painted base - and I'm also pretty sure that it had the bolts in it that show on the front.
In a couple of weeks when I get the machine in and can poke around a couple of things like the Gold Award mechanism, I'll post better pics and details of what I've found, probably to the Fantastic Finds forum. In the meantime, here are a couple more pics that may show a bit more of the award card and reel strips - I'm not seeing anything I can identify as Gold Award, which is not to say I'm not missing something, or that the machine might not actually have been rigged for it to work at at first and then changed early on - but if y'all want to continue giving me some hints of what to look for, it is much appreciated.
Oh, and by the way, on eBay today in a collecting specialty that I know very well, I'm pretty sure that I picked up something very nice for about half the going price, there must not have been other collectors who picked up on it (and there may not have been enough margin for dealers to bite), so sometimes you overpay but then sometimes you get a steal....
JP
Restored Mills 5c Extraordinary "barn find", long gone - now restoring 1934 5c Extraordinary Gold Award with original World's Fair reel strips
Restoring early Mills 5c Firebird (large coin view window)
About to take on a Mills 5c Vest Pocket