Coin Slot Magazine - #045 - 1978 - October [International Arcade Museum]
China-watchers used to say, it's like trying to determine which of
two giant sharks is winning a fight underwater based on the bubbles
rising to the surface. With almost half-a-million Mills MLB serial
numbers out there somewhare dated prior to 1945 we really need
thousands to form any sort of conclusions, and all that have been
tabulated so far are a few hundred. It will take all of us to get
something accomplished, so if you know any Mills serial numbers
send them in and identify the machine so we can all learn some
thing in the process.
A quick track of Mills machine development as demonstrated
by their serial numbers is in order to fill you in on the kind of
things we can learn about. The first LIBERTY BELL and OPER
ATOR BELL "Iron Case" machines were made until the end of
1914, when they were replaced by the newer Mills oak cabinet
1915 OPERATOR BELL that provided a larger cash box in the
formerly empty area between the cast iron feet.
In 1922 Mills introduced the F.O.K. front vender.
Produced
side-by-side at Mills with the Bells and side venders, the F.Q.K.'s
started out in 1922 with MLB serials in the 100,000 range. By
1924, with the later 1925 FRONT OK model, including skill mo
dels, the serials were over 120,000; by 1926 over 150,000, and by
1928 over 180,000.
By late 1928 revamp kits with jackpot fronts were going out to
the Mills jobbers and dealers to enable them to convert their stan
dard OPERATOR BELL machines serial numbered from 110,000
upward to the new jackpot configuration.
By December the new
Mills JACKPOT, factory model, was reaching the distribution pipe
line. Serials were in the 135,000 to 180,000 range, and the cabinet
front was brand new.
Operators quickly called the machine
"Torch" based on its graphics, or "Torch Bullseye" based on the
coin detector magnifying glass below the gooseneck.
By 1929
Mills was back with an even newer JACKPOT machine nicknamed
"Pointsetta." Early models had the date "1929" in the casting,
but that was soon dropped, ending the dated fronts on Mills ma
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The big move
in 1931 with the introduction of
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SILENT, h quickly called "War Eagle." It wasn't long before
chines. Serials went from around 185,000 to about 220,000. The
machine settled into the name RESERVE JACKPOT in its reserve
the
the
serials were running well over 300,000. When Mills first intro-
duced the machine they waxed eloquent about the colorful new
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