DIGGER27
In Memory Of
http://old.stacksbowers.com/NewsMed...8/ArticleID/64973/PROPERTY-OF-O-K-VENDER.aspx
Thought it was a lowly common washer at first it was so dirty and crusty but I cleaned it a bit and saw letters.
I sez to myself, "Self, washers don't usually have letters."
Lesson...don't throw away your finds till you check them out.
Brass and has these words on it...
"PROPERTY OF O.K.VENDER" on one side,
"LOANED FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY" on the other.
A few other hunters have found these over the years, it fits a Mills Vending machine which sold gum at first, Bells Gum Fruit, later on mints, Vens, and both products were low quality garbage which nobody cared about because these were really slot machines in disguise.
Had 3 reels just like a slot and most with a handle you pull.
Most common was a nickel type, put in a nickel and you could press a button and get your pack of gum but nobody ever did.
There was a little window on the machine that would tell you how many of these tokens you would win on the next pull and it always started at 0 so that first nickel was already lost.
They would pay winners between 2 and 20 of these tokens so most probably kept playing hoping to hit the big dollar jackpot, a lot of money in those days.
If you won you could let it ride and hoped to win more but like most slots play long enough and you would be a loser.
Very popular from the teens through the 20's and 30's in bars, stores, all kinds of places and the store owners would make a little extra profit on the take from these things.
If you did win you were supposed to keep trading the tokens for gum or mints but sometimes you could trade them in for other products from the store owner, or that is what the owner/operators told the authorities if they came sniffing around anyway.
The O.K. was not about Oklahoma but about proclaiming the machines and tokens were legal and OK to have and play.
When nobody was looking they would usually give you a buffalo nickel in exchange for each token and that was gambling and illegal but it still went on all over the country for years.
These machines are highly prized as collectables now.
This company made hundreds of kinds of slot and vending machines from the early 1900's till the 1940's... the first OK vending machine came out in 1912 that "sold" gum, another in 1926 that had mints and maybe one or two more in the 30's.
Not silver but still an old cool find so I'll take it gladly.
Thought it was a lowly common washer at first it was so dirty and crusty but I cleaned it a bit and saw letters.
I sez to myself, "Self, washers don't usually have letters."
Lesson...don't throw away your finds till you check them out.
Brass and has these words on it...
"PROPERTY OF O.K.VENDER" on one side,
"LOANED FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY" on the other.
A few other hunters have found these over the years, it fits a Mills Vending machine which sold gum at first, Bells Gum Fruit, later on mints, Vens, and both products were low quality garbage which nobody cared about because these were really slot machines in disguise.
Had 3 reels just like a slot and most with a handle you pull.
Most common was a nickel type, put in a nickel and you could press a button and get your pack of gum but nobody ever did.
There was a little window on the machine that would tell you how many of these tokens you would win on the next pull and it always started at 0 so that first nickel was already lost.
They would pay winners between 2 and 20 of these tokens so most probably kept playing hoping to hit the big dollar jackpot, a lot of money in those days.
If you won you could let it ride and hoped to win more but like most slots play long enough and you would be a loser.
Very popular from the teens through the 20's and 30's in bars, stores, all kinds of places and the store owners would make a little extra profit on the take from these things.
If you did win you were supposed to keep trading the tokens for gum or mints but sometimes you could trade them in for other products from the store owner, or that is what the owner/operators told the authorities if they came sniffing around anyway.
The O.K. was not about Oklahoma but about proclaiming the machines and tokens were legal and OK to have and play.
When nobody was looking they would usually give you a buffalo nickel in exchange for each token and that was gambling and illegal but it still went on all over the country for years.
These machines are highly prized as collectables now.
This company made hundreds of kinds of slot and vending machines from the early 1900's till the 1940's... the first OK vending machine came out in 1912 that "sold" gum, another in 1926 that had mints and maybe one or two more in the 30's.
Not silver but still an old cool find so I'll take it gladly.
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