rtmccurdy wrote:Hi. Just got in a nice all original Groetchen Liberty with sport reels, tokens galore, odds sheet, etc. Works best with old worn nickels---hates the new ones! Was wondering about the
"free play" tokens and whether or not the owner paid out nickels (or merchandise---would be a nice deal with 250 coin token). I don't see a way to create free plays on the machine. Where was the serial
number usually placed? Thanks!
Hi Robert:
The Groetchen "Liberty" with the sports reels, are found in much fewer numbers, than the more common Fruit or Cigarette versions.
Most of the "Mercury" models with Cigarette reels, had a round metal plate, with a lady smoking a cigarette, on the front. Strangely,
you will sometimes find that same plate on a Fruit reel version, of both "Mercury" & "Liberty", which doesn't make sense to me. Then
again, they left the plate off many cases as well. Yours does not show any signs of 4 holes, from having a plate, which should have had
the sports plate, showing two boxers on it, because of having the sports reels. It sure seems like they did things at random, and slapped
on whatever was laying close-by at the time. We will never know the rationale of this.
As far as the payouts on these token vending models, it was up to the establishment for where they were located, as to what you would
receive in trade. In a saloon, you would get drinks or smokes. In a Smoke Shop, you would get Cigars or Cigarettes. In a Hardware Store,
you would get whatever. Many merchants would have a small easel next to the machine, with a hand-written card, stating what would
be your prizes for the day. I have, at times, found such cards, inside a machine, as well as slips of paper, with the cash intake for the days
date. Sort of an extra bonus, for historical data. And of coarse there were cash payouts as well.
Groetchen had a strange way of serial numbering their machines, and not all models had serials. Very few of their wood cased models, had
a number stamped in the wood, and they weren't always in the same place, but were always stamped outside. On the aluminum case models,
like the "Liberty", "Mercury", "De-Luxe Mercury", "Ginger", "Sparks", "Champion", etc., the serials were mostly letter & number combinations,
that were painted on the inside front of the case, and usually the same number painted on the platform of the mechanism, just under the
reel bundle. If those numbers do not match, it would indicate that an operator may have swapped the mechs at some point. Many of these
machines came in a multitude of single and tu-tone colors. Common colors found on the "Ginger", are green, red, and tan wrinkle. Most all
of the other models are found in several hammertone combinations, as well as smooth colors. The one exception being the larger "Sparks"
model, with the star casting on the front. They came in smooth, hammer, and wrinkle finishes. I did a restoration for a customer on one of
these, not long ago, that had 3 to 4 layers of color changes, before I got to the original color combination, that was a tu-tone dark & light
blue hammertone. The before and finished results, shown below. And Yes, the coin entry was smashed down into the top of the case during
shipment, and it was well wrapped, and double-boxed to boot. 'Big Brown', aka Ooops, did it again!
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 2:10 pm