Hopefully mark gets all of his problems ironed-out with this machine. They were well built units, and generally took a lot of abuse.
Many of these machines that were built for the English market, were on location near the water, and even outdoors in some areas,
of which the later did not survive the elements as well. I bought quite a few of these machines from an antique dealer, back in the
late 70's to early 80's, when they were being shipped back to the U.S. at the time, along with several models of 3 reel slots, diggers,
etc. He was mainly a furniture dealer, that would bring in one or two 20' container loads, every couple of months. The first slots that
I seen in his shop, were Jennings "Tit-Tat-Toe", and Sega Bells. After he realized that I would buy most every coin-op that he brought
in, he started acquiring a larger variety of machines. I was mostly buying the ones in better condition, cleaning them up, and changing
the payout slides, and other parts, necessary to operate on U.S. coinage. These so-called Ben Hur style models, I usually let the coin
play stay with the 1d penny, which most were, as there was no sense in making something other that it was originally intended. Caille
made these models strictly for the Foreign market. Mostly England, France, and Germany. This taller case style, was Never built for
the U.S. market. It has gotten out-of-hand for many years, watching most people that are selling these models, insisting on calling
them a Ben Hur. They Never were, and Never will be. Most every one on eBay, and the live auctions will call them this, thinking it will
bring a higher price. It would take one-hell-of-a-lot-of-work, to make one of these Foreign models into a U.S. version. First of all, the
case is much shorter, and the wood panels & trim are styled differently. Then there is the task of changing all the coinage parts in the
mechanism. Not to mention downsizing the coin head, of which not all models are the same. The foreign models had several different
styles of heads & details. Only One head style was used on the U.S. models. The payout cup also has to be cut-down, (almost in half).
The coin-view window casting on most, are a plain smooth casting, and not the ornate style, as found on the real-deal U.S. model.
One of the English models, which had a different style coin head, was called a "Commercial", in the advertising brochures. There were
also several different color wheel designs, and not all had the same amount of stops. One model has greyhound dogs on the wheel, as
well as on the coin head.
With all of this being said, there are those, that will continue to call these Foreign models a Ben Hur, when they 'ARE NOT'.
Many are the same ones that try to convince us that they are selling a real "Golden Nugget", of which there are very few originals known.
Some have even said that it came out of the casino. There were Never any Golden Nuggets in Any Golden Nugget Casino. Just like there
were Never any War Eagles in a War Eagle Casino! And so forth!
!!