Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

COIH
MACHIHE
REVIEW
112
FOR
FEBRUARY
1947
according to W. D. Bailey, chief Of the state
division of cigarette tax. He also reported
that the state tax on cigarettes in 1946
totaled $15,641,599. December tax stamp
sales amounted to $1,267,190.
Woolf Solomon. reports that the only
damage wrought when a 19·year-old youth
broke into Central Ohio Coin premises was
a broken window. A burglar alarm pre·
vented the break·in from going unnoticed.
The youth was captured by 'police;
Bill Walker and Adin Shade, partners in
the Majestic Music Co., received a little
publici ty in one of the local pa pel'S re-
cently.
Th~ Automatic Canteen Co. of Columbus
was one of the 13 candy distributing firms
which filed suit for supplemental contracts
requiring the Automatic Canteen Co. of
America to absorb 50 per cent of candy
price increases. The suit was filed in Fed·
eral Court in Chicago. Two other suits filed
at the same time charge the Automatic
Canteen Co. of America with violation of
anti-trust laws and breach of contract. The
company is charged with conspiring with
13 candy companies to prevent Canteen
operators from purchasing supplies directly
from candy manufacturers.
Ed Shaffer showed me a copy of the
firm's new house organ, Coin Profits, and it
looks like a good idea. It will serve as a
link between the company and operators it
services. A new series of Seeburg Music
Systems schools started in January.
Gene Ford, Shaffer salesman, took the
marital step recently with J oanneAllen.
Bernie Flynn, parts manager of the Co-
lumbus Shaffer office, had the misfortune to
lose a finger in a freak accident.
Notes from the little black book: Al
. Logan of Tri-State Amusement Co., Hunt-
ington, believes in starting early. He has
been recaulking his speed boat for next
summer's sport on the Ohio River .•.. Fred
Wolfe of Portsmouth's O. K. Automatic
Music Co. was in an auto accident. For-
tunately there was no serious injury and
Fred returned to work . . . . Mills and Co.
of Huntington is using a promotion-minded
location that plugs its new Seeburg equip-
ment during a local radio program. Bakery
goods are given as prizes for guessing tunes
played on the Seeburg phonograph during
the program .... Huff of Mid-Ohio Amuse-
ment in Mansfield, is enjoying a Florida
vacation . . . . Wirt Ferrell of Huntington's
Ferrell Amusement , Co. has been in Hot
Springs, Ark., for his health. . . . C. H.
Hopkins and Maynard Hopkins of Hopkins
Music Co., Galion, reported no luck on
the.ir first day of the hunting season ..••
Estel E. Shaffer has been , enjoying a well-
earned vacation in sunny-it is, isn't it?-
California . . . . Mike Cohen was in Cleve-
land on business during the first week of
the New Year.
Mike Charie reports that Packard Mfg.
Corp. sent a representative to visit Capital
PIa-Mol' Distributing Co. recently to give
the staff some tips on the new Packard
Pla·Mor phonographs. Mike is one of the
lucky fellows who has received confirmation
of hotel reservations lor the big coin ma-
chine show in Chicago. He says he'll ' be
glad to get away for a little relaxation as
well as see some pretty wonderful stuff.
Another local coinman who is looking
forward to the show is Woolf Solomon.
Little did I know that this husky hustler is
a student of Nietzsche, Santayana and other
great philosophers. Woolf has heen called
upon to spark the Philosopher's Forum at
the show. The subject "How To Live" will
serve as the meat that he and fellow coin-
men will discuss at the Sherman Hotel on
Monday, February 3. A student of all the
great philosophers, Woolf is reported to be
able to give a capsule account of many of
the great men in that field of study.
-
W. C. A,rth.r.
Foreign "Souvenir" Coins
Slug Domestic Market
NEW YORK-Operators aren't the only
ones who are bothered by "lugs with slugs"
-or perhaps it might be said that the phone
company, the subway operators, and the
men who handle station lockers are not the
only ones bothered with slugs and foreign
coins-operators are bothered, too. The
difference is that there's almost no way in
which operator losses can be tabulated. On
the other hand, telephone company officials
aren't inclined to talk, either; they say
they'd rather not even look at the statistics.
But the subways, now-
Last year New Yorkers jammed 194,517
slugs or foreign coins into the subway
turnstiles. Slugs and odd-looking coins pour
in at any time or station. Officials claim
there are actually "slug-happy" characters
who will drop a Swiss nickel into the slot,
watch it pass the bull's-eye (a magnifying '
glass in the turnstile of the Interborough
Rapid Transit Lines) and then brag anout
how they put it over.
While the current crop of foreign coins
seems heaviest from Palestine, Honduras,
Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Japan,
there are even occasional ones from as far
away as Australia, perhaps dropped by re-
turning ex-GI's who have gotten hard-up
and decided to part with their souvenirs.
Last year the subways took in 2,300 Cuban
nickels, nearly 64,000 Canadian nickels.
The latter weren't a total loss-only 15 per
cent.
Still, that's not as bad as the harder-up
characters who will buy chewing gum, chew
it, roll it and palm it to simulate a nickel.
.1£ it makes contact, the turnstile opens.
The worst of it .is, of course, that after
the' lugs with slugs have gone through the
turnstiles, they fool the chewing gum,
peanut or penny chocolate vendors on 'sta-
tion platforms with more unspendable coins.
Some 74,000 foreign metal pieces were
combed out of these machines during the
year-not counting those servicemen may
have tossed in disgust at a passing train.
As for slugs in the subway vending ma-
chines, Al Chalfant of the New York Sub-
~ays Advertising Co. said they weren't even
counted. "We just lump 'em and dump
'em," he sighed.
At American Locker Service, Inc., an
official said they get around 300 useless
coins in their 6,000 lockers in New York
stations every month, including some "from
every corner of the globe." He added, "some
of these bums live out of 10cI{ers. We never
have this trouble in other parts of the
country."
At first, when the war ended, there was a
market for foreign coins among collectors.
An overloaded ex-GI could always drop into
a dealer and get something for his sou-
venirs. Now there is a slump in the coin
mili'ket, and a spokesman for Fifth Avenue
Coin Dealer Hans Schulman said he hoped
it would be permanent. "Most of that stuff
is now junk," he said. "A few months ago
we were getting German, French and Bel-
gian coins by the carload. Local dealers
were going crazy. It's dropping off, thank
goodness!"
Just how worthless some of the coins are
was indicated by foreign exchange. It takes, for example, 20
Russian kopeks to equal a nickel, or 10_
Turkish kurus, 50 German pfennigs, two
Belgian francs or two Czech kronen. And
some of the foreign money is plain alumi-
num or brass.
For the record, it should be pointed- out
that ex-GI's aren't being held to blame for
all the foreign coin dropping. Their prin-
cipal part in the problem facing concerns
with coin-operated devices is that · they
brought the coins back with them. They
made wonderful souvenirs to give to friends.
It's the friends, there's little doubt, who are
cashing them in.
.
Shipman Back in
Full Scale Production
LOS ANGELES--The war halted produc-
tion Of a dozen different types of machines
turned out by Shipman Mfg. Co. and re-
duced its line to postage stamp vendors.
Once again the firm , is ready with a va-
riety of amusement devi.ces an~ vendors.
The following products Will be displayed at
the show:
1. Triplex model automatic postage stamp
vendor with three compartments.
2. Penny Peek Show, still photos of art-
ists' models, third dimensional 35mm film.
3. Hollywood Art Show, a 5-cent amuse-
ment machine showing still views of Holly-
wood models in natural colors on 35mm film _
This is a console type.
4. Spin-It, a 5·cent almond vendor; added
feature is a spinning reel with numbered
race horses.
-
5. Spin-It, a penny nut ma~hine, contain-
ing the same features as the mckel type.
6. Razor Blade Vending Machine, which
dispenses packs of four blades for a dime-
both single and double edge.
Sonora Records to
Sell for 39 Cenfs
NEW YORK-Sonora Radio & Television
Corp. have announced the nrst reduction. in
the price of phonograph records by a major
manufacturer by issuing a new "black
label" platter which will retail for 39 c~nts.
"Our decision to market a low prIced
phonograph record is in line with a crying
demand for less 'expensive luxury items,"
Joseph Gerl, Sonora's president stated. "The
public 'Wants quality merchandise at low
cost and we are prepared to satisfy that
demand with our ne'.\' 39-cent record."
Milton R. Benjamin, general manager of
the Record Division, -said production has
been tooled to turn out 20 million discs this
year.
Record Cig Tax , Receipts
ALBANY, N. Y.-New Yorkers who
smoked a record 34,354,462,580 cigarettes
in 1946 sent the state's cigarette tax receipts
soaring to an all-time high of $32,592,353.
As figured by the State Taxation Depart-
ment, the per ·c apita consumption by New
Yorkers was 2,450 cigarettes, or 122~
packs.
The department reported that sales last
year rose 31 per cent over 1945, when war
shortages still were felt. New Yorkers that
year bough t only 26,145,625,710 cigarettes.
Atom Cigarettes
NEW YORK-No, it's not a trick cig
which explodes when lit, but a new product
named to keep pace with this Iltomic age.
It is an extra long, thin smoke with choite
of four tips: red, green, black and blue. The
appeal will be primarily slanted toward
women who can match tips with the color
of their (1) dress (2) jewelry (3) cocktail
(4) fingertips (5) lipstick.
.
Manufactured by the makers of Phantom
cigarettes, they come 20 to a pack and retail
for 30 cents.
production of Large Cigs
Up. Small Ones Down
WASHINGTON-Sale of standard-size
smokes for the first ten months of 1946
showed an increase of 19.87 per cent com-
pared to the same period a year ago. Large
cigarettes dropped off 98.91 per cent.