By Jack Freund
This will be a regular feature in each issue. Members
are encouraged to submit their "story" of great or
unusual finds . We want to hear from all areas of coin-
op ... arcade, slots, trade stimulators, jukes, gum and
peanut machines, pinball. (You get the idea, don't
you?)
For this first issue of
"C.O.C.A. TIMES" I will
tell you about finding my
Leebold peanut machine.
For those of you who are
not yet vending machine
collectors you need to know
that this is a very desirable,
hard to find, expensive nut
machine, circa 1917. Now
for the tale ...
About five years ago I
received a letter postmarked
Anaconda, Montana. The
The very ornate
person sen di ng t h e 1 etter (I "LEEBOLD " circa 1917.
no longer remember his
Manufactured by the
name) wanted to know if I
R.D. Simpson Co.
would be interested in bidding on a Leebold peanut
machine. There was no picture or description of the
machine, no phone number to call, just that one sen-
tence asking if I would be INTERESTED!
There was a problem with his request for a bid on the
machine. There are two Leebolds listed in Bill Enes'
book Silent Salesman Too, one the 1917, very desirable
version and a newer machine (circa 1923) called the
Famous 1-2-3 Vender made by the R. D. Simpson
Company. Some of the Famous 1-2-3 Venders had a
decal that listed C. E. Leebold, San Francisco,
California as the manufacturer. While it is a neat
machine, it has a value of about 85 percent less than the
other Leebold. So, it was absolutely necessary to deter-
mine which machine we were talking about.
Hoping to phone him, I checked with information, only
to find no such person listed at all. So, I sent a letter
addressed to his return address asking for a photo or two
along with a phone number where I could call him.
The time of the year was late fall and I was busy getting
ready to do the Chicagoland Coin-op show. As most of
us will agree, Chicagoland is the place to be in the
spring and fall. Because of the high level of anticipa-
tion, excitement, energy expended and then the winding
down period after the show ended, I had· completely
forgotten about the Leebold peanut machine. In fact, it
was about six weeks after Chicagoland when I found
the original letter from Anaconda, Montana in a pile of
old mail on my desk.
Realizing that he had apparently sold the machine to
someone else, I was feeling sorry for myself for letting
this one "slip through my fingers ." Then I thought,
"WHAT IF HE DIDN'T SELL IT?" I picked up the
phone, dialed information and asked for the names that
were listed under Smith (I still can't remember his
name, so I'm naming him "Pete Smith" for this story).
There were two Smiths listed, neither of them "Pete." I
took both numbers, called the first and asked for Pete
when the party answered.
The man said, "Pete does-
n't live here anymore. He
moved to California." I
was talking to Pete's
father! he told me Pete
had moved some time
ago. I said that probably
explained why he sold his
Leebold peanut machine.
His father said that Pete
'------===--------'
Detail of "LEEBOLD" base. never had any vending
Note that it is embossed
machines but that he had
"Berkeley, Cal. "
worked at the antique
mall in Anaconda and maybe that was where the
machine had been. I asked for the mall phone number,
thanked Pete's dad and re-dialed.
continued ...