C.O.C.A. Times

By Johnny Duckworth
Do you ever feel that all the rare coin operated ma-
chines have been pulled out of the dark deep holes in
which they lurk? Back in the early "hay days" great
finds seemed to happen almost weekly or even daily
according to many old collectors in the coin operated
hobby; now these finds seem to take years. We have
all been bitten by the coin-op bug as we search for that
killer old machine that has been tucked away. However,
with a little luck and a lot of determination, amazing
finds still happen.
This coin operated scale turned up in a little town in
Michigan. The consignor had been cleaning out his late
grandfather's estate and hauling everything off to the
local auction house when I found out about the scale.
I could remember reading about this rare machine in a
C.O.C.A. article written by Jim and Merlyn Collings
(March 2003) as well as Bill Howard's book Every Pie-
ture Tells a Story.
When l had first laid eyes upon the scale in photos,
I could see that it had been in the barn for quite some
time. The upper mirror and pointer were long gone
so the scale looked a little neglected. I made several
phone calls to Jeff Storck to pick his brain and learn
more about the scale. A huge scale collector and dealer,
Jeff owns hundreds of scales. He assured me that if all
the golf apparatus remained intact and in good condi-
tion nothing else would matter. Fortunately, parts for
the scale portion could be obtained by searching out for
another similar yet rare model that the scale company
produced.
I offered to buy the scale from the auction compa-
ny, but they wanted to do more research and find out a
value before they made a decision. After a little over a
week, they decided it would be best to place the scale
in their upcoming auction on Saturday. That was only
three days away and to top it off they don't take phone
bids. I had to get up to Michigan right away and try to
purchase this machine.
Even though the drive took twelve hours, it didn't
seem so long with my dad riding along with me. He
asked me several times along the way up, "What if we
drive all this way and you don't get the scale?" This was
something constantly on my mind, but nothing I wanted
to dwell upon. I was excited that the scale would finally
be for sale but on the other hand you don't always win
at auctions, especially if someone else wants the item
as badly as you do.
The following morning we arrived at the auction
house when they first opened to look the scale over. The
consigner had hauled in a mutoscope clam shell and a
mechanical slot machine as well as the scale. I talked
with one of the auction owners to find out what else
could still be in this old barn. They informed me that
the barn had been completely cleaned out, and nothing
else remained.
I tried once more to buy the scale in order to not
wait around for the auction the next day. I was told the
machines would go to auction unless I wanted to talk
with one of the auction owners who list their items on
Ebay. He had picked the items up from the consigner
and could make the final decision. We waited around a
good hour for him to show up for work. When he finally
showed up, I began negotiating a price. After fifteen or
twenty minutes of conversing, I managed to purchase
the scale before it made its way into the auction.
I still find it hard to believe, but with all of the time
delays and small issues I encountered, I had this incred-
ible scale bought before the auction even started and
loaded into the truck. I have been called "lucky ducky"
in the past by turning up rare machines, but this time I
truly felt lucky. Ever since operators pulled these out-
of-date Fair Weigh Golf Scales off of their routes, col-
lectors have only found two of these machines, with
mine now becoming the third.
The Colonial Scale Company produced this ma-
chine in Boston, Massachusetts in the 20's and into the
early 30's. They applied for the golf mechanism pat-
ent on December 30, 1930, receiving it on December 5,
1933. Some say that this scale has been considered one
of the greatest novelty scales ever produced because it
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