. . . fantastic (?) find

This is the place to post about any fantastic find (past or present) that you think the rest of us would enjoy reading about.

. . . fantastic (?) find

Postby edgeCity » Sun Dec 18, 2016 2:31 pm

Hi, guys -- need some help identifying/dating this piece. My friend is an antique dealer and has had this for some time. Says it takes pennies and has a gumball dispenser. Looks like it predates WWII, anyway. Thanks!
Attachments
championPennySlot.jpg
User avatar
edgeCity
 
Posts: 143
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 4:18 pm
Location: Elmore, OH

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby sam2002 » Sun Dec 18, 2016 3:36 pm

Sparks trade stimulator ? Nice machine . There is one on ebay right now
Last edited by sam2002 on Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
sam2002
 
Posts: 702
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 4:45 pm

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby edgeCity » Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:44 pm

championPennySlot(03).jpg
championPennySlot(04).jpg
championPennySlot(02).jpg

. . . some more fotos
User avatar
edgeCity
 
Posts: 143
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 4:18 pm
Location: Elmore, OH

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby sam2002 » Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:59 pm

Did it come with any tokens ?
sam2002
 
Posts: 702
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 4:45 pm

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby JHSS-1944 » Sun Dec 18, 2016 11:58 pm

none of the cigarette tokens = a door stop for now. cab be found with effort.
made in in the 1940's mine gold & blue paint ,in 5 cent.
jeff H.
JHSS-1944
 
Posts: 676
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:04 am
Location: Peoria, Arizona

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby cpdretired » Mon Dec 19, 2016 7:20 am

This is a Groetchen Sparks Champion. It was made in 1940 by Groetchen Tool Company located in Chicago. The last one in my records sold on eBay 10/18/2016 for $527.00. Yours does need restoration so the price I gave you may be for a restored machine.
Ron
cpdretired
 
Posts: 487
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:28 am

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby nvmos2 » Mon Dec 19, 2016 9:27 am

A nice, but fairly common machine.
The correct tokens for this machine would not be cigarette tokens, but Free Play tokens to match the denominations shown on the award plate. This machine had it's own line of tokens with the machine name (Sparks or Champion) on them. Additionally, it has a second special award token dispenser on the front; I think they would be a little larger size.
nvmos2
 
Posts: 808
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:43 am
Location: SE Virginia

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby JHSS-1944 » Tue Dec 20, 2016 2:35 am

Numos2 is correct, sparks has the smokes & tokens for free packs. Champion has fruit symbols & free play tokens. champion is less seen than sparks. on eban they tend to not go for much, or priced a bit high & don't sell. the extra award tokens for the front window would be 3 tokens. mine are slightly domed ,copper material with nothing on them BUT, never knew if these were original to this machine.
it came with a lot of the free play tokens. I really don't think the extra award tokens really ever leave the machine, just for looks.
Attachments
champ 18.JPG
champ 19.JPG
JHSS-1944
 
Posts: 676
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:04 am
Location: Peoria, Arizona

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby JHSS-1944 » Tue Dec 20, 2016 2:39 am

here's an image of the extra award tokens in mine &in place. Sorry ,actually 4 of them.
jeff H.
Attachments
champ 17.JPG
JHSS-1944
 
Posts: 676
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:04 am
Location: Peoria, Arizona

Re: . . . fantastic (?) find

Postby nvmos2 » Tue Dec 20, 2016 7:28 pm

Jeff;

Nice assortment of tokens you have there;
seldom do you find these machines with a full (or mostly full) tube of tokens.
With what they are going for these days, a full tube of tokens is not of insignificant value.
The 100 and 50 Free Play tokens command a premium since there were relatively fewer of them made and operators often removed them and threw them in the nearest river to avoid paying the top awards.

Your Gold Award tokens, however, are clearly replacements and look to be blank slugs.
The original Champion GA tokens had the machine name and other design/printing stamped onto both sides.
Also, they were not just for show; there should be a dispenser attached to the inside of the front casting.
When the player hit 3 bars on the reels, the dispenser would drop a GA token into the payout cup below the viewing window.
I'm out of town for the holidays, otherwise I would post photo of the GA tokens and could tell you how many of them came with the machine for a full dispenser.

Jim
nvmos2
 
Posts: 808
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:43 am
Location: SE Virginia

Next

Return to Fantastic Finds

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests

cron