Mills War eagle on ebay

[thepennyarcade]

I always thought an original Mills War Eagle required 2 cherries to win either a 2/4 payout
The machine on ebay now, looks like an original mechanism and cabinet but the vertical fingers have that checkerboard stamping??
So is this a real original or is there a high top mechanism in an older cabinet/castings?
Can anybody help me with this?
Thanks
John

[Midcoast Vintage]

here is the auction #.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-MILLS-W ... 1e98e4696c
other areas of question:
cabinet appears to have had some refinishing done, as it was not re-stained around the decal area.
mills decal appear to be a replacement, as it is too white. white areas should be "yellowed" from age. look at how aged the license decal is.
sword handle is incorrect.
silent series always had the flat handle.
handle and hub would be nickel plated, not painted ( some sword handles had partial paint ).
payout is definitely strange for this era machine
some of this incorrectness could be operator changes.
the card looks old, and appears to have the cracked lacquer look, as most 30's and earlier cards do, but, again...single cherry pay?
it would be interesting to get the serial #, and see if POSSIBLY... if this is a VERY LATE war eagle, as in... one of the last one produced while they were already into the production of the half tops, or what the actual story is ( we probably will never know, as we were not there ), but, this is one of those interesting machines that "looks so right... but.... looks so wrong".
a cross-over / transition machine?
an operator change to keep it running and pulling in money?
who knows?
There was an operator out of Brainerd, Mn. that was still operating into the 80's.
He had done tons of conversions of old machines to token vendors for amusement machines to be run as a novelty, and and dispense a token with each play.
he had tons of original parts, and, knew how to work on them.
this very well could have been one of his old machines.

it is definitely more real & correct than the now famous blue & black castle top / futurity lower" composite machine ( viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1948 ) that was overly discussed on this forum.

[Midcoast Vintage]

I don't know if this something to worry about, or, not, but.... item location was originally listed as Washington, District Of Columbia, United States, which is what it still states as location on the the other ad has running; but he has changed the location of the slot machine to now read
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/TIFFANY-CO-18K- ... 1e98f17f32
TIFFANY & CO. 18K GOLD DIAMOND & RUBY WREATH BROOCH
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Time left: 29d 23h 2/26, 9:22PM
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US $2,000.00
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Item location:
Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

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[Midcoast Vintage]

he has now re-listed it, and, the address is now lineboro, maryland?????
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-MILLS-W ... 1e99085834

[kentdun]

I live in Minnesota and love the license decal.