TJ:
The "Trip-L-Jax" was made by more than one mfr. The one shown here, was by American Sales Co. in Chicago.
To my knowledge, none were produced in Nickel play. If a nickel fits into your shooter, and works, it was either
filed out, or replaced with a shooter from a Rock-Ola model, whom did have a nickel play version of their "Five
Jacks". The strange thing about this, is the nickel will not usually fit into the jackpot cup, unless the pins were
moved, as a penny barely fits in, at a very precise angle. It does appear from you pix, that the pin, directly above
each jackpot, was moved to the left, but I am not positive. It could be something an operator may have changed.
But why didn't he remove the playfield instructions, that says Penny, when this was done. It's a mystery to me!
I have two different models of this machine, and a nickel will not fit in either shooter. This has the same style
shooter casting, that is on the Pace "3 Jacks", which are also all penny play, and on the Rock-Ola, in both 1c & 5c.
Are you ready? Here comes that WORD again. It would be nice, if you could call this a "RARE" nickel version, but
with that Penny paper, it won't work. Besides, when you found it full of pennies, was a clue. And please don't
remove the paper from your totally original machine.
Let me know what you detect, with a closer look at those pins.
Bill