Jennings Governor

[vndgguy]

A friend of a friend has a Governor, sixpence tic tac toe for sale. I have only seen a pic of the machine as it is several hours away. Before I make the trip I thought I should ask the pro's opinion. It is supposedly all original, and looks to be in very good condition. Is this a good machine for a guy whose wife plays them constantly? Any thoughts as to avg. value? Have these been reproduced? Are there specific things I should look for? I've read that these should work for dimes or pennies but may not pay out correctly? Can they be converted to use pennies and should they? I have a couple of Mills machines, but know even less about Jennings, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanks again
don

[mechanic]

As far as I know Governors have not been repro'd but then I dont know much. The American coins will pay short since it is a six pence. If you want to put the time and money into converting it, it can be done. Most would just change the marquee at top and call it a day. But as I said earlier I dont know much.

[SLOT DYNASTY]

Don:
The Jennings "Governor", and similar models, were a good line of machines, and for the
most part, 'non-problematic'. Back in the 1980's, I bought many of the 6pence models,
that were being shipped back to the states, from England, to a shop I did business with
in San Francisco. The only thing wrong with some of them, was the chrome plating was
worn & dinged, but with cleaning & lubing of the mechanism, they worked flawlessly.
Most of them, I changed the slides to U.S. coinage, for resale, and some of the others, I
left as is, for friends that wanted a machine at a lesser price. The 6pence machines did
play nicely, on either a penny or dime, but didn't pay correctly on the higher amounts.
I kept two of them, (penny play), in the shop, for several years, for my children, and
their friends, to play all they wanted, so they would leave my good stuff alone. Between
these two Slots, and two or three Trade Stimulators that fed them all the gumballs they
could chew, they were all happy as could be.
So, it would be safe to say, that if your friends machine is in good working order, and
you want a machine at a reasonable price, I am sure your Wife will be playing the hell
out of it. I am not sure what "Governors" are fetching these days, but if you can pick it
up in the neighborhood of $850 or less, depending on how good of a friend he is, that
would be good. Then it will be up to you, if you want to leave it as is, with the short
pays, or convert it to U.S. coinage. If you leave it as is, I would suggest using pennies
rather than dimes, because of the likelihood of jamming with the thinner coins. Even
some U.S. dime machines have this problem. Also, these machines have not been on
the Reproduction list. Good luck.
Bill

[vndgguy]

Thank you so much for the information, and thanks to everyone in general for the site and knowledge you are all so willing to share.
Don