"MILLS FUTURE PAY GOLDEN VENDOR"
Here is a video of a SIMILAR machine, with much good information.
The machine shown in the video, Does have a jackpot, and, gold award for payouts, as well as having skill stops.
It is also RED (restored to original colors).
In Dick Bueschel's book "LEMONS, CHERRIES, and BELL FRUIT GUM", there are reprints of original Mills advertising flyers for this machine.
I do not have the book in front of me at this time, as, i have loaned it to someone, so, i can not remember, or, state as to whether it shows the model with no jackpot / gold award as is being discussed in this forum, however, it DOES have the top FUTURE PAY MECHANISM, as does the machine in question. And... the machine is RED, not blue.
The video goes into detail on the inside workings of the mechanism, which is pretty interesting, as is the history and production dates of the machine which are also discussed.
Hopefully, this will shed SOME, insight into the POSSIBLE origin of the machine(s) in question.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQuNrIvYLOUhere is a link to a partial flyer from the Larry Debaugh website:
http://www.oldslots.com/LiteraturePages/castlefront.php