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School me on this Mills Black Cherry please

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Fiddlehead:
Greetings all,

I've recently come into a pair of Mills slots. I'd like folks' opinion on both. Any info is welcome - authenticity, value, date of manufacture, the works.

They are a 25 cent Castle Front and a 5 Cent Black Cherry.  This post is about the Black Cherry.

Did not find a serial number, either on the case, wood or sticker anywhere. Appears to have been painted (powder coated?), had the cherries repainted, and has a replacement award plate/bib. I believe the lock and key have been replaced, and it appears to have a replacement cash box. The machine works just fine.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

shortrackskater:
The case and mechanism appear original to me. Great that it all works too. How much did you pay for this one?
And, again... hopefully member 63mini will chime in soon.

There's another website called "coinopcollectorforum.com" that deals exclusively with mechanical slots. Join that one! There's a lot of information already posted there. But there are a few of us highly intelligent guys here that love the old mechanical slots too!  :rotfl:

63mini:
Fiddlehead,

  It doesn't appear that you need much schooling on these.  You seem to already know pretty much about these.  Yes, the award bib has been replaced with a reproduction and you would be missing a cast cherry that would go just above the jackpot window.  That cherry is slightly different than the other four.  The jackpot one can be identified as it had some spaces between the stem and cherries.

  From your photos I can see you are also missing a couple of small parts (which are no big deal).  One is the drill plate on one side and the wooden partition between the cash box (which is a repro).  These were probably removed at some point when someone did a cabinet repair and/or painted the castings in the wrinkle finish black.

 As for the paint that is up to you.  Personally, I do not like the wrinkle finish.  In my environment it is a major dust magnet and is too hard to clean.  I like the original hammered finish silver on those.

  If the game plays and plays you may just enjoy it for a while and decide what you really want to do with it.  They look like a nice find.

Pinballwizard55:
Once again a nice find. they got it backwards though, the cabinet was originally painted gloss black and the plates should be be hammered metal silver. Also i would try to get  an original  front bib if possible, the repros just don,t do it justice. overall nice machine, enjoy ! The wizard.

Fiddlehead:
As promised here are the lock & keys, along with the original lock which I found tucked nicely inside the cashbox.  Does anyone make keys to fit these old Mills locks? 

I'm still trying to decide what to do with these two machines.  They came from a close family friend.  She's in her 80's, and these belonged to her late husband. She doesn't know much about them or where he got them.

I'm either going to sell these for her, or keep one/both and buy it/them from her.  If I do decide to sell one or both, I need to decide whether to paint the 25c, or replace the award bib on the 5c.

Please keep the suggestions coming! I'm especially interested in what folks think these would bring, as I want to make sure she gets fair value.

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