Memories of chrome ..........

[badpenny]

Hi Richard .........
Welcome to the premier site for those who share your memories and dreams of chromed, rattly clunk!
The machine you describe would appear to be from the sought after Jennings range of one arm bandits. The two most commonly found models being the Governor and the Chief. They both had the Indian head above the jackpot window. I am sure many others will come along that can tell you off the tops of their heads the dates up until the 1960s of each and every variety they made.

Your memory serves you well, they are superb quality machines with a mechanism that rarely fails. They do come up for sale occasionally and can command prices between £600 and £1600 depending on the model, condition, age etc. rather like women really!
Not sure I've ever seen a 4 reeler, although I'm sure they probably were made they'd more than likely have been found in casinos or on board liners. The type played in pubs, clubs and arcades were 3 reelers, as you say sporting cherries, plums, oranges, melons, bells, lemons and of course the famous Tic- Tac- Toe symbols.
If you type Jennings Governor or Jennings Chief into Google and hit images you'll find oodles of photos.

Happy browsing

Badpenny

[pennymachines]

Hi Richard,

If your Grandfather did own a four reel Jennings Indian head bandit, he had what is now probably the most desirable of the Jennings bandits: the Buckaroo, which was introduced in December 1954. The extra reel meant it could offer some very big payouts, which appealed to the hardened gamblers and made it a lucrative machine for the operators. It would probably be worth more than twice as much as a more common three reeler variant such as the Governor below.

The images of the Buckaroo and the nice light-up Sweepstake Chief are from Dieter Ladwig's Slot Machines.