Offering for sale this Mills bonus high top, circa the early 1950’s made by the Mills Novelty Company.
I gave the Mills bonus high top a good going over.
It had plenty of old dried up grease and the like,
There were patches on the first reel which really didn't need to be there, it was a
reel alignment issue.
Installed a brand new set of quality reel strips from Rick Frinck, straightened out the reel alignment, disassembled the reels cleaned the reels properly and oiled and greased them.
Cleaned, lubed an serviced the entire machine.
It came to me with what is called a club handle, I replaced this with an original style sword pull handle.
The machine is in A1 condition.
The bonus feature works flawlessly as does the rest of the machine.
The bonus feature is a really cool gimmick that was devised by the Mills Novelty company to entice you to play this machine, it consists of an extra payout for spelling B-O-N-U-S above the coin escalator. This is achieved by consecutively spelling bonus by hitting the letters b-o-n-u-s on the first reel which then appear above the escalator as they are hit. Once this is done a payout of 18 coins is paid. All the regular payouts cherries, oranges, plums, bells, and jackpot are also given if hit. The bonus was a gimmick to entice you, as an extra payout above and beyond the usual payouts. For example if you walked into the establishment where several machines were in operation and you saw B-O-N were present you’d more than likely drop your coins in this machine over any of the other standard payout machines, the thinking would be you’d complete the U-S in the word B-O-N-U-S, for the extra 18 coin payout.
The bonus machine has the old style jackpot with jackpot reserve.
The typical coin size payout issues are present, which means, the coin slides were produced to handle worn silver quarters, the modern clad coins of today do not wear, so therefore the higher payouts of 18-20 will most likely short by one coin, this is a known and common issue for all vintage slot machines. The lower 2-14 payouts seem to be pretty consistent.
The paint on this machine is not original and it looks very nice but the paint does have some minor flaws. The paint scheme is the way I received the machine and I am not the the one who painted it.
Original Mills lock and key, back door and period cash box.
Whoever buys this will be very happy it. It will give years of fun.
This machine can be shipped to anywhere in the lower 48 for $200 or less, depending on your location, or you can pick up in person and save the shipping expense.
Machine is located in central Ca.
Price $2200