C.O.C.A. Times

OBSERVATIONS AND SPECULATION
By Jack Freund
I attended the Mel and Anne Getlan auction, con-
ducted by Victorian Casino Antiques Auction Com-
pany, May 4, 5 and 6, 2012. This was one of three
great auctions that I have witnessed over the last
35 years, the other two being the Dr. Smith auction
in 1994 and the Stan Harris auction in 1995. There
have been many other fine auctions over the years,
but these three auctions had so many important coin
operated collectables that they just stand out from all
the others.
I attended the auction preview on Thursday and
was amazed at the number of machines and the qual-
ity of them. As I browsed thru the maze of items I
came upon Lot 758, the 1 cent Mills Novelty "Mills
Peanut Vendor", circa 1908 (Fig 3).
First, a little history about the Mills Peanut Ven-
dor. It is really a Faust Maier with a Mills tag on the
front. Faust Maier Co., Milwaukee, WI, came out
with their peanut machine in 1908 (Fig 1). Mills had
machines that vended tab gum, chocolate and match-
es, but no peanut vendor. It is unknown to me if Mills
bought the rights to the Faust Maier or bought the
entire company, but now, in 1908, they had a peanut
vendor, their first machine with a glass globe (Fig
2). Also, see the ad for their "Glass Globe Machine"
(Fig 6). While it was a good looking machine, with
a large bulbous globe, it was almost impossible to
put peanuts into it. It had no opening at the top of
the globe! It had to be turned upside down and filled
from the bottom! Look at Fig. 2 and try to imagine
balancing the machine while filling it upside down.
I'm sure many globes were broken.
OK, back to the auction. As I inspected the Mills
Peanut Vendor I suddenly realized that it did not
have the Faust Maier globe. Instead, it had the same
globe as the Mills Little Perfection peanut machine
of 1912! (See Fig 5). It appears to have been factory
installed and solved the problem of getting peanuts
into the machine.
I had to have it!! I said nothing to anyone about the
mach ine for fear of someone else getting as excited
as l was. On Friday I became the new owner of the
very exciting Mills Peanut Vendor with "Improved
Globe".
A week or two after the auction, I was looking thru
SILENT SALESMEN TOO, by the late Bill Enes.
I came upon the CAILLE PERFECT VENDOR of
1909 (See Fig 4). It is VERY similar to the MILLS
PEANUT VENDOR, with a square body, ( cast iron
vs. stamped metal), water spigot handle and a globe
similar to the Mills machine. It looks as if Caille
copied Mills, but in a much fancier version. Caille is
given credit for introducing the Perfect Vendors and
the SUNBURST in 1909.
Then I checked the MILLS LITTLE PERFECTION
for information. Interestingly, Bill Enes thought that
maybe Mills copied Caille, as the Little Perfection
had a pivotal lid, boxy base, side mechanism and a
cup for the peanuts to fall into (basically, the same
features the Mills Peanut Vendor had in 1908). May-
be, after Cai lie appeared successful with their Perfect
Vendors, Mills felt it necessary to upgrade their pea-
nut vendor to a more fancy version, the 1912 MILLS
LITTLE PERFECTION (Fig 5).
I failed to mention earlier that the 1908 MILLS
PEANUT VENDOR had a wooden vending mecha-
nism. So did the 1912 MILLS LITTLE PERFEC-
TION. It also retained the same globe as the 1908
improved version. It seems that Mi I ls upgraded the
1908 machine to be competitive with the Caille 1909
machines.
So here is the speculation ..... Faust Maier was first
(Fig 1), Mills Peanut Vendor was second (Fig 2), Im-
proved Mills Peanut Vendor was third (Fig 3), Caille
Perfect Vendors were fourth (Fig 4) but copied the
Mills, Mills Little Perfection was Fifth (Fig 5) but
copied the ornate look of the Cailles.
Is this a great hobby or what?
Thanks to Ken Rubin and Paul Hindin for helping with some of the photos used in this article.
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