CoinOpCollectorForum.com

I have what I believe (after a year on/off research) to be a 1937-38? Mills 5 cent Brown Front Bursting Cherry. I'll add some pics later, but just have a question that's been bugging me for years.

Can a nickel machine be converted to tokens only?? (sounds a bit stupid, but let me explain)

It's been in my wife's family for over 50 years. I know this as I played this machine in the 60's in their basement, (yeah, I married the girl up the street) and he always told us "never to use nickels only the tokens in the cup", and , "if you use real money the machine will jam up so never do it." That rang in my head even to this day. He had a finite number of different looking metal tokens about the size of a nickel in a cup next to the machine. If we ran out, you had to wait for him to 'magically retrieve some' the next time you came over to play it.
- Fast forward to 6 years ago or so and we've inherited the machine after my wife's mom moved out of their house. It has sat covered in a corner of our lower level ever since, but has been played a couple few times a year by wife, fiends, etc..

So ever since I was little I wanted to play real nickels in that machine, and can only theorize now why my father in law (now long passed away) told us back then not to use real money.

1.) Maybe he was told that by the previous owner and didn't know any better himself?

2.) Maybe MN gambling laws were such that you had to use tokens to use the machine?

3.) or?

Anyway, I have in the last few days tried a couple nickels, and they did not jam it up that I can tell. So I have no idea if a machine, this machine has/could be converted to tokens from nickels.

Thanks.

PS. I'm pretty sure we will be selling it, but I'm having second thoughts. Basically much smaller house, and we really won't have room for it. Anyway, I'm still working on keeping it with the wife.

You can play a nickel or a token, no difference. Tokens were used in some areas of the country to get around gambling laws. If you used tokens and the machine paid off in tokens, it was legal to operate the machine. The machine was not set up to accept one or the other. It could be set up to send all nickels to the cash box and only allow tokens to be paid as a reward but nickels will not jam your machine anymore than a token.

Watlingboy

Funny the things we remember from our youth;
my mother always told me that if I "keep doing that, you'll go blind".

Sounds like a nice original machine;
look forward to the photos;
what is the serial number (should be stamped into top front casting and maybe on stickers inside)?

Seems like a shame you have to sell it;
would be nice to keep in family.

He probably figured if he let kids play with real nickels, he'd soon have NO nickels left! Of course the store down the street would have been happy

If you play with nickels the tokens will run out.

Thanks for the replies, and I figured as much. Just talking to my wife a little bit ago she also confirmed how much her dad emphasized 'only tokens worked and were to be used'... I still always wondered though, and of course put a nickel in like I mentioned and my pics will show....

Anyway, I spend some time today trying to take and format some pics of it. Some with flash, natural lighting, bulb lighting etc.. Hard to get the correct brown face color with my old camera. Most pics look a little darker toned.

So here is a link to my photoshop album I just made a bit ago to show as many angles of it as possible. The only issues I know of (with obvious limited slot experience) is there is no lock, and the wooden base has a coupe grain cracks that run to each side, but surprisingly do not get bigger. They've been essentially the same since the 60's which of course means they may have been there sooner.

So here is a pic and then the album...




Link to more pics:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/viper1357/library/Antique%20Slot%20machine


"

Great looking machine great photography too. Nice solid survivor. I don't recall does it have original cash box and the locking cash box door?

Richard13 wrote:Great looking machine great photography too. Nice solid survivor. I don't recall does it have original cash box and the locking cash box door?

Hi Richard,

Not sure what you mean except for the coin box with the spring trap door the coins fall into?

It's in the album somewhere. I took pics of all I have for it, and honestly I know even less about it.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/viper1357/library/Antique%20Slot%20machine


Maybe someone can answer that better than me.


"

I also shot a quick video of just one play with it. The lighting is terrible as is the shaky POV camera holding.

Nothing too exciting, but it's fun to see it in running action.

https://youtu.be/i_bOf2ylH-A


-Mark

Sorry yes I see the coin box now sorry I was using my smart phone the first time I looked at the photos.