CoinOpCollectorForum.com

Hi,
I was looking on ebay, and saw this machine.


I had a couple questions about it. It looks like a Mills Black Beauty, but I am confused. Why does it say Fremont Hotel on it? Were machines labeled for individual hotels? Was this common? My other question is what is the 3D? It almost looks like there is a button below the 3D. Most that I have seen on Google image search have the denomination where the 3D is. Can anyone provide any insight?

Thanks,
Phil

Hi Phil:
This Mills HighTop is an Export model, built for the Foreign market. The 3d is the coin it was originally set up for.
As for the Fremont Hotel badging, either there was a Hotel by that name where it was located, or someone over
here put that on, after it made the trip to this side of the pond. I would tend to stay away from this machine,
unless the price is 'dirt-cheap', and you have moxy to go through it, and change it over to U.S. coinage for your
future enjoyment.
Bill

Phil , so your the guy that bought this machine ! you out bid me on it.

this is just a basic mills high top, "no title".
most likely an ex-U.S. used machine ,bought & shipped to the U.K. Then reworked there to play with the British 3d coin. nickles can be used, but you will always have pay out issues, & maybe coin jam ups via the pay out slides.
the Fremont hotel badge could be an original one, might not. Most likely put onto this machine After it arrived in the U.K., to give it some "American casino history".
what's under the added 3d coin badge ??? note it was reworked having a coin return push button, done in the U.K. for sure. should be a lot of changes under the hood as well, depending on who reworked it.
any additional photos ?? since the seller had only 2 crummy ones.
I suggested to the seller post add more photos ,or ad more information. he Knew it took British coins to play but, did Not want to tell anyone, knew it wouldn't sell.
jeff H.

Thanks for the info Bill and Jeff. I did not win it, but have talked to the owner. I am taking a look at it on Saturday. I am glad I asked about it on the forum, as I did not know that it took British coins. When I saw the "Fremont Hotel", I assumed it was a US machine. I guess the 3D should have been the clue. As far as converting it to take US coins, am I safe in assuming that only the payout slides would need to be replaced, or would the escalator also need to be replaced? Thinking through how the mechanism works, I can't think of anything else that might prevent the coins from going through the machine. I guess all this is dependent on other "Surprises" that might be on the inside.

Thanks for your help, it is much appreciated.
Phil

Hi,
The high Top on Ebay, is probably an original machine from the Fremont Hotel, regarding the conversion to the English 3d coin, when we bought these machines into the U.K. we converted some of them to the 3d coin, the 3d coin is roughly the size of a U.S. 5 cent coin, but is one and a half times as thick, so we had to put a new set of slides and also adjust the jackpot trip lever to trip the jackpot. regarding the rejecter button, that was obviously on the machine when it was in the States. The reason I know this is that the 3d badge has been cut at the bottom, to make it fit the same mounting hole as the 5 cent denomination plate, also you can still see the original escalator through the coin window, if we had fitted an escalator when converting this machine in the U.K. we would have fitted what is known as a "Shefras" escalor that had the reject button mounted below the coin entry.

The 3d machines were very popular, I operated many of them, in fact Sega made a 3d machine for the British market, it was distributed by Ruffler & Walker better known as R & W Sales. (See Attached trade add) also a picture of one in a location, once Bally came out with their Money Honey machines, nobody wanted to play the mechanical machines on the same denomination, so in locations that had more than one machine, we installed a Bally on 6 pence play and a Sega model on 3 d play.

Hope I was of some help.

Freddy Bailey

Thanks for the info and pictures Freddy. Amazing how much you can learn from these Forums.

Phil

Phil ; if you end up bringing it home with you. please share some more photos of it.
jeff H.

pb4sc wrote:Thanks for the info and pictures Freddy. Amazing how much you can learn from these Forums.

Phil

Indeed -- fascinating discussion!