First Coin Operated Slot Machine
In 1st century A.D., Hero of Alexandria designed the first vending machine–it dispensed holy water after insertion of a coin. Apr 13, 2018 Stefan Andrews. It is no accident that Alexandria is considered a stepping stone in helping modern civilization evolve. The city was a center of academia where many new inventions were created, and where the knowledge produced was seized upon by the minds of people for a millennia afterward. Mar 31, 2020 The first coin-operated slot machines were invented in or around 1887. Nowadays, we have modern day penny slots and networked progressive slot machines. Gaming machines show no signs of doing anything other than just keep on developing and improving, likely for another 130 years and beyond. Get My Free Report Revealing.
Collecting Vintage Coin Machines
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- In short, coin-operated arcade games are popular in places open to the public where people are likely to have free time. First popular arcade games were early amusement park games such as shooting galleries, ball toss games, also earliest coin-operated machines, such as fortune tellers, strength testers or played mechanical musics.
- The first coin-operated slot machines were invented in or around 1887. Nowadays, we have modern day penny slots and networked progressive slot machines. Gaming machines show no signs of doing anything other than just keep on developing and improving, likely for another 130 years and beyond.
The era of coin-operated machines is concurrent with the gasoline-powered automobile. The last quarter of the 19th century saw the commercial birth of both major industries, and the first quarter of the 21st century will probably witness their demise.
These machines continue to operate. Coins, however, are quickly being replaced by paper bills, credit cards and other new technology, while cars are quickly being converted to electric operation. Soon, society may no longer need coins to purchase anything.
Mills Whiffs of Fragrance, Mills Novelty Company, | Superior Horse Race, Superior Confection Co., Columbus, Ohio. One of the most highly sought after slot machines from the 1930s, the goal is to line up the correct colors of horses to make a payout. Win or lose, the player always received a roll of mints. (Photo, courtesy of Johnny Duckworth.) |
During the American Industrial Revolution, coin-op inventors produced numerous devices. The vending, amusement and gambling machine industry grew side by side with the other great inventions of this era.
Vending machines have been around longer than any other type of coin-op. They can be traced back to an ancient Egyptian holy water vendor used more than 2,200 years ago. A five-drachma coin provided a small splash of water with which a worshiper could sprinkle himself. Around 1700, pipe tobacco and snuff vendors appeared in England. In the 1880s, foreign-born inventors on American soil developed and manufactured many types of vending machines. Matches, collar buttons, chewing gum, peanuts, stamps and cigars were just a few of the multitude of items that one might purchase for a penny or nickel.
Gambling devices soon followed, and during the 1890s, the industry flourished. Originally, all coin-operated machines were called slot machines, but later, the term would be used only when referring to gambling devices.
Violano Virtuoso, Mills Novelty Co., Chicago. Playing piano and a real violin in a quarter sawn oak cabinet, these mechanical wonders entertained people around the globe. Thousands of nickelodeons were produced by various manufacturers between 1910 and 1930. | Fancy Front Comet Slot Machine, Pace Mfg. Co., |
The first gambling machines were based on poker, roulette and dice games. These early machines usually required a nickel in the slot to operate, but they did not pay out coins. Winning combinations were paid out in cash or merchandise by a clerk over the counter. These gambling machines were called trade stimulators.
In 1898, Charles Fey created the first three-wheel payout slot machine. The basic mechanism was copied by numerous manufacturers and remained unchanged for more than 60 years. Hundreds of thousands of “One Armed Bandits” were produced. Collecting antique slot machines is legal in most states, provided you do not use them for gambling. Collectors should check the status of their state law before purchasing.
Amusement machines also developed quickly in the 1880s. Coin-operated Edison phonographs led the way. Soon, strength testers, fortune tellers and stereoscopic card viewers led to the establishment of the first penny arcades. Penny scales, punching bags, electric shockers and more great amusements delighted operators and patrons alike.
Superior Golf, Superior Confection Co., Columbus, Ohio. | Caille Money Back Scale, Caille Bros. Mfg. Co. Detroit Michigan. Produced in the early 1900s, this penny scale told your correct weight and gave you a chance to receive your penny back—the coin traveled through a pin field and would sometimes fall into the payout cup at the bottom. (Photo, courtesy of Johnny Duckworth.) |
The coin-op industry exploded during the 1890s and early 1900s. Machines could be found in every city and town. Tobacco shops, hotels, country stores, saloons, train stations and beach resorts became great sources of revenue for coin machine operators. World War I, however, slowed the industry. The 1920s and ‘30s, which saw the return of huge production numbers, are often called the Golden Age of coin-op.
A second war would again result in a slowdown as manufacturers were prohibited from using materials that were deemed critical for the war effort, and factories were converted to produce military goods. From 1950 to 2000, coin-op production continued to expand into a multi-billion- dollar industry.
Coin machines reflect the art forms of their production periods. This may sometimes help collectors identify the machine’s age. This is especially true for gambling machines. The earliest machines were very simple in their design. In the late 1890s, machines had Victorian lines. This would give way to the straight-lined Eastlake décor. After the turn of the 20th century, designs were marked by art nouveau and that would later switch to geometric art deco. Modernism prevailed and dominated most all production after 1940.
Gambling machines from the late 1800s and before 1915 usually trade in the four- to five-figure range. Some rare machines occasionally sell for up to $250,000. Most machines manufactured from 1920 to 1950 go for a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Modern electromechanical and digital slots seldom sell for more than a few hundred dollars.
Musical Judge Upright One-Wheel Slot Machine, Mills Novelty Co., Chicago. A Swiss music box played a contemporary air when a coin was dropped, giving you something for your money to challenge the anti-gambling laws. Quarter sawn oak cabinets with cast iron trim graced many styles of large one-wheel wonders made between the 1890s and 1930. | Ranger Arcade Gun Game, Bally Mfg. Co., Chicago. |
Arcade and vending machines were more brightly painted and evolved to a carnival-style look. Their age can usually be judged by the coin denomination, with early machines being penny-operated and later ones requiring nickels. The earliest machines employed cast iron, mahogany and quarter sawn oak in their cabinetry, while later machines used aluminum and lesser quality woodworking.
Arcade machines from the turn of the last century sell regularly in the four- to five-figure range. Most of the very old vendors sell for $500 to $15,000. Although there are exceptions, arcade and vending machines made after 1935 sell for $50 to $2,000.
The number of coin-op collectors worldwide is estimated to be in the low thousands. This is partially due to the scarcity of available machines on the market. These machines were originally sold to the operators rather than to the public that used them. Machines were seldom put up in someone’s attic like most other antiques.
For the most part, these machines were seen as utilitarian money makers by their owners; once they came into disrepair, they were discarded and replaced with newer models. “Evil gambling machines” were often destroyed by law enforcement. Arcade machines endured the constant abuse of children. A vending machine was no longer considered useful when price changes were required or products were redesigned.
Jumbo Success Trade Stimulator, Mills Novelty Company, Chicago. More than a dozen makers produced these large cast iron poker machines in the early 1900s. Winning hands resulted in “FREE Drinks or Cigars.” Most were located in saloons. (Photo, courtesy of Johnny Duckworth.) |
The Coin Op Collectors Association (COCA) is an international collectors club dedicated to collecting, restoring and preserving these machines and their history. With more than 700 members, the club continues to grow as younger folks discover these fascinating devices. The COCA website, www.CoinOpClub.org, is a great source of knowledge for anyone interested in coin-op.
Ken Rubin, a member of the COCA Hall Of Fame and author of the first definitive coin-op book published in 1979, Drop Coin Here, is considered to be one of the most widely recognized authorities on coin-op machines and their history. In a recent interview, I asked him to offer his outlook on the view of a coin-op collector.
“The hobby of collecting antique coin-operated machines has grown as more people recognize the exciting qualities these machines possess. As an art form, they cover the period from 1885 to about 1950. Within this period, the diversity of style and function is extraordinary. The charm, beauty, and character found in these objects as works of art would in themselves be enough to make them treasures.
“But antique coin machines offer a great deal more. They accept our coins and perform as willingly today as when they first appeared. They elicit a sense of nostalgia that conjures up memories of naïve days and simple pleasures. They invite the attention of the craftsman and the mechanic to keep them in presentable and operating condition. They are fun, unique artifacts of America’s cultural past.”
Ken is currently working on his new, soon-to-be-published book, Silent Cigar Salesmen, The History of Cigar Vending Machines.
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Bill Petrochuk has been an avid collector of coin-op machines since the 1970s. He is a past president of the Coin Op Collectors Association and is currently serving as the editor of the club’s website. Contact him at www.coinopclub.org/contact.
StoriesNovember 04, 2019We know them, we play them, we spend way too much time and money trying to beat them, but have you ever stopped and wondered how the coin-operated machines we love so much come to be?
If you have, you’ve come to the right place! Sit back and relax while we tell you a brief history of coin-op machines, free of charge.
The Shape of Holy Water, aka The Beginning of Coin-Op Machines?
Picture it: Ancient Greece. 50 AD.
There’s a crisis at hand.
No, the dinosaurs aren’t back for revenge – people are taking too much holy water, free of charge! Apparently, in ancient Alexandria, people could just go up to a valve and get holy water for their holy needs. Also apparently, they weren’t very good at taking a normal amount of water, so Alexandria was facing a holy water shortage.
Enter our hero. Literally.
Enter Hero of Alexandria, the brilliant mind who gave us inventions that lead the way to wind power, syringes, force pumps, and the coin-operated machine.
Hero devised a machine that portioned out a small amount of holy water when a user dropped a coin in a slot. When dropped, the coin would fall into a pan connected to a lever that dispensed the holy water through an open valve that closed shut when the weight of the coin was displaced. 1 People could now get the correct amount of holy water, and ecumenical justice was restored.
It wasn’t until the 1800s that people came back to the idea of coin-operated machines. In 1883 in London, a man named Percival Everitt invented a machine that dispensed postcards, a relatively new way to brag to your friends that you were on vacation.
Soon, his machines were installed in railway stations and post offices everywhere, proving that we’ve been finding ways to avoid human interaction for years now.
Coin-Op Machines: Let Me Entertain You
After the success of the postcard machines, coin-operated vending machines began to dole out numerous small items like gum, chocolate, newspapers, and even tobacco.
But coin-op technology was not only regulated to sales, soon strength testers and trade simulators (machines that when started showcased a scene such as a chimney sweeping or characters moving around a set) started popping up at bars and saloons everywhere. The man who patented the first strength testing machine in 1885 even found success with a machine that gave the user a small electric shock. Apparently, back in 1885, getting buzzed had a whole different connotation.
The invention of the American Mutoscope in 1886 really cemented the public’s love for all things coin-operated.
With the mutoscope, a user could look through a viewer and see images that were attached to a circular core that the user would spin with a crank to make the images look as if they were in one continuous frame. Eventually, the crank was replaced by a mechanical device that spun on its own rather than manually. These new mutoscope parlors became a cheaper alternative to the vaudeville shows of the time, and were often filled with salacious content like scantily clad women playing the ukulele and scantily clad women putting their shoes on. (Oolala!)
Prohibition Ruins Everything, Even Coin-Op Machines
First Coin Operated Slot Machine Machines
With the shutting down of bars and saloons during prohibition, coin-op machines were close to extinction as well, until the A.B.T. Manufacturing Company (found success making coin-operated skill games and placed them at amusement parks and took them to trade shows around the country.
One of the most successful was a game was called Target Skill that tested players aim and skill with a shot and ammunition. These games shifted the focus of coin-op machines from novelties and gambling to fun real, games that stood on their own.
At the beginning of the Great Depression, these new arcades became even more successful since people couldn’t afford their usual pastimes. These games became a quick and inexpensive respite in a world that seemed hopeless.
Though versions of pinball have existed since the 1600s, the pinball games we are used to seeing today started in the 1930s with a game invented by Harry Williams called Contact.
Contact was the first iteration of the game to have a ball released from a bonus hole in the center, and used lights and bells to attract customers to play 2.
When I Say Ping, You Say…Coin-Op Machines?
The earliest known coin-operated video game was invented by the people who needed it most: college students.
In 1971, students at Stanford University created Galaxy Game, a version of a game called Spacewar invented by a man named Steve Russell in the 60s. The next year, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney invented the game Pong and the video game industry was born.
When home consoles and self-gaming setups became popular, arcades and coin-operated gaming parlors started to fade away. Until industry leaders remembered that people love two things more than anything else: nostalgia and booze!
With the advent of places like Dave & Busters and Barcade, the coin-op industry is once again thriving. So the next time you step up to a game of pinball or Pac Man with a coin in one hand and a beer in the other, give some props to Hero of Alexandria, without whom we might have never discovered coin-op games.
And we certainly wouldn’t have had any holy water left over without him, either.
- Smith, E. The History of Vending Machines Goes Back to the 1st Century. Atlas Obscura. 2018
- Smith, Alexander. Historical Interlude: the History of Coin-Op Part One, the Rise, and Fall of the Penny Arcade. They Create Worlds