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Looking to purchase this machine but would appreciate clarification on access of coins. I assume the coins fall through the mechanism base through to the timber base housing. Is there intended to be an access port within that housing for coins retrieval? The machine I am looking at has no access so I wonder whether it is a non functional repro.

The Ginger has not been reproduced.
Coins fall into the base.
The base has wood sides and a metal bottom plate.
There is a small locking door in the bottom plate that is opened to access the coins.

Thanks for your clarification-much appreciated. I was only referring to the bottom plate as a repro. Wayne

I have now purchased the machine and it is currently being shipped. The base plate within the timber housing does appear to be original to me (see pic). Is it possible that the machine was produced without the base plate coin access door? Thanks Wayne

Interesting.....the bottom plate does look old.
Strange that it has 4 unused screw holes.
Seems like the only way to empty coins would be to remove case and shake them out the opening they fall thru to base.

Some Gingers did not have the wood base; the coins accumulated on the mechanism base and were emptied by opening a round locking door on the bottom of the mech base.
If your machine has a round hole in the mech base, perhaps it was put together by an operator adding a wood base to one that originally did not have it.

I've had several Gingers with wood base and they all looked like this;
(I think they all also had a square opening in the mech base plate for coins to fall thru).

Thanks nvmos2. I look forward to the machine arriving and I check those openings which you mentioned. One thing that did not look quite right to me was the opening within the main base plate through which the coins drop-somehow the flare does not look original.

I've always liked the Ginger, but only have 1 left. I no longer have the model without wood base.

Every Ginger I've seen without wood base has the same round hole and locking door (which is often missing) in the mech base to empty the coins.
I've notice that on the ones with a wood base, Groetchen varied the size/shape of the opening in the mech base for coins to fall thru.
Mine is similar to yours, but less rounded on the one end; we both have what I believe to be remainder of locking tab when it was a round hole (photo below).
There is a Ginger currently on eBay with wood base which has a larger opening in the mech base and the tab has been cut away by the expanded opening.

The one on eBay also has the 4 screws as yours in bottom metal plate(mine does not), which I believe were simply for attaching 4 rubber bumper style feet.

My theory (developed just now);
Your Ginger is all original.
Ginger started out without the wood base and had the round access door on bottom of mech base plate.
They soon went to wood base to accommodate a lot more coins and expanded the round hole for coins to fall into base.
The hole got bigger since some coins still fell onto the mech base plate.
During the transition, they may very well have made some without the square locking door in the wood base metal bottom; coins would be emptied by removing the case and getting them out the same hole they fell thru.

Unfortunately, the guy who knows more about these than the rest of us combined is no longer with us (RIP Bill).

That is very very helpful nvmos2 and reassuring-thank you so much for taking the trouble to provide your advice. The machine is not working so I will provide an update once it arrives from the US. Wayne

Machine has now arrived and confirms your theory is correct nvmos2. The metal base is inlaid to the wooden base and for all intents is original. Perhaps this was generic to the model without the elevated coin entry?

Completed resto of this machine-very happy with result.