Penny for your thoughts.

[jimliner]

I know the denominations could be changed easily depending on how awards were listed. 

My question for the Bally e/m buffs, were there any e/m Bally models that were in operation as penny machines  more so than all the others?
 Wife thought we should add a penny machine to collection.  "I would hate to disappoint."   Don't want to pass up an opportunity where she's ok with me buying another slot. 

[CVslots]

They did exist. They were not a favorite of techs, as the coins are lightweight, and similar to dime machines, the coins jammed frequently. In the 70s-80s, there were some casinos on the road up and around the North side of Lake Tahoe (CA) that had penny machines. My grandparents would have my mom drive them there to use up endless bags of pennies.

I "believe" (which means double-check this first) that you can get by using a nickel set-up for pennies. My husband has a penny coin head and maybe a hopper shelf (?). It will probably (almost more like literally) be going to the grave with him, as they are hard to come by.

[Amechanic]

I've never seen one, but that doesn't meen they don't exists.. I would think converting a dime machine would be easier then a nickel, that is if you can find a true dime machine. The wheel shelve should work, as well as the knife.

[CVslots]

Ok, just checked with my husband to make sure I did not lead you astray. You can get by using a nickel coin and hopper setup after minor mods. The coin acceptor needs to be tweaked a bit (as nickels and pennies are 2 different weights). For the hopper shelf wheel, you can use either dime or nickel. Many of the penny machines utilized in the US actually had international coin size/weight parts (like pence,etc), as the international coins were very similar in size to US currency. This is still not uncommon today, but in reverse. International customers will often use the most similar size american coin equipment in their machines. I recently had a Netherlands customer use nickel and quarter coin parts to accommodate their coins.

P.S. as Gary noted, the knife may need a minor adjustment as well, depending on what shelf you go with.

[RiseLikeRa]

Jim:


I asked the same question about a penny Bally EM many years ago on the "old forum."  At that time many members chimed in and one person actually posted a nice picture of his/her Bally Penny EM.  I am sure that if you are really interested that post can be located.


Ra

[Jon]

okay I went out to the shop I dumped all the dimes out of my diime I do have the artwork for a penny for an AM machine thoughmachine I put pennies in I put a penny in the coin rejector comparator and played the Machine I have seen one 809 set up for pennies hard to find that generic glass

[Jon]

a friend of mine seen the post called me and explained why we didn't see penny machines in the eighties in the early 80's they went from the solid copper penny to the copper plated zinc penny it way different and the coin comparators would not since the two of them and there were so many of both out that they were always not working so they did away with the penny machines at that point in time so even with a coin comparator you have to make sure you have all new pennies or all old pennies to put in the machine

[Jon]

sure enough Peter was right I went out to the shop where  I have an old machine with coin comparator I put a penny in it and it rejects the copper pennies I put a copper penny it rejects the plated pennies

[CVslots]

Since the question was posted in the EM section, I didn't address the issue with Coin Comparitors, only Coin Acceptors (the mechanical version used in EMs). But yes, that was the primary reason for the demise of the penny machines, and I'm sure Profit had something to do with it as well.

[Jon]

I agree but when the wife give you permission to buy another machine if it runs on pennies and it needs to be old I build it I put it in the house the only coin computers I have are off of all the machines that people have wired in I do not know anything about voltages what coin comparator put on that would be a question much butter left for you or somebody into the newer  machines

Eminem hopper works the best no adjustments necessary

[jimliner]

Thank you all for all the responses.  I didn't expect anyone dump their dimes or test comparitors but very nice.  Shows how great you all are.   

Let me ask the question this way, what 60's Bally E/M slot would you convert to penny?
Thanks in advance. 

[Jon]

809 zzb

[rokgpsman]

a friend of mine seen the post called me and explained why we didn't see penny machines in the eighties in the early 80's they went from the solid copper penny to the copper plated zinc penny it way different and the coin comparators would not since the two of them and there were so many of both out that they were always not working so they did away with the penny machines at that point in time so even with a coin comparator you have to make sure you have all new pennies or all old pennies to put in the machine

The machines that use the X-10 and other coin comparitors by IDX can accept up to 6 different coins or tokens. You program the comparitor to "learn" the metal characteristics of each coin and it stores it in memory. You can have it setup to accept several different coins that way. So this would be a way around the old penny vs new penny problem. I've seen many machines that use the IDX X-10 so they were out there in casinos, but a lot of people don't like messing with them since they are more complicated to setup than the CC-XX models where you simply insert a sample coin. With the IDX comparitors casinos could use old and new pennies on the same machine if they wanted to, I think they quit using pennies mostly because of the physical size of the coin and the value, it just wasn't worth the hassle to deal with them back before the days of TITO. Machines used to accept dimes but they fell out of favor too due to small physical size. Back when the casinos had to deal with smaller coins on the floor, plus bag and process them, it was a big pain.

http://www.idxinc.com/x10.htm

[jimliner]

Thanks everyone for your comments.   I am going to look for an 809 or perhaps a 831.  I am going to see what my slot guy has in stock.  And the chicagoland show is coming up so I will spend an afternoon there.   

[jimliner]

Almost done. 

I am looking for one part.  Manual page 81, Index #85, P/N - P6431-series, coin guide spacer.   (Specify denomination) dime (widest) or nickel.   Prefer dime.  But nickel would work.  Quarter is ~ 1/8".

I purchased a brand new mechanical 1 cent coin mech, works great.  Old or new pennies go through fine. Nickels get stuck and dimes returned.  But Bally spacer below mech is for quarter and pennies can build up in corner even with slope of the ramp.  Spacer keeps coins off high corner by guiding coin to ramp. 

Hopper was a breeze, nickel shelf did the trick. 

Thanks in advance, wifes happy too.

[jimliner]

Got a couple spacers on their way. 

[RiseLikeRa]

Folks on this group are simply the best!

Ra