I purchased an old Mills Castle Front (black) with hand load jackpot. Everything checks out on it, in terms of being a true machine- (serial number on machine and wood base match, has the proper number of rails behind coin escalator, has pump, etc...) Ultimately, I'll end up having it restored at some point, but am trying to learn about it at this point.
At this point, what i'm confused about is the hand load jackpot- From what I understand, the lock cylinder on the front of the machine is to be removed and then I load coins (nickels) in this case, thru the tube, which will load the jackpot up. I ran 3 rolls of nickels through it tonight, to see how it played and paid out (paid out perfectly every time). On 2 or 3 occasions, after pulling the handle, while the reels were still in motion, the machine would deposit a nickel into the jackpot bin on the front of the machine.
To my understanding, hand load jackpot machines didn't fill the jackpot on their own, hence the lock to load the jackpot manually.
What am I missing here?
Thanks in advance for any info you may have.