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What was wrong with this at only £166 on ebay? Looks quite old and rare to me.

Hi Jimmycowman,
I saw that one too, but let it pass as it seemed to be missing a few essential parts --namely a few brass parts that act as trips or levers to keep the coin wheels from spinning, as well as the jackpot release at the bottom (but maybe it's just the picture that's not clear enough...).
See the below picture of this Elite (taken from goldserie.de - link : Elite.

Have a good day. Christophe

That does sound cheap but as Christophe says, it's not clear if all the trips are in place. The other question would be coinage. Although these were made in Germany, some seem to have been built for the British penny, but not all, and it would not really be convertible. A local antique dealer bought one with a full compliment of pennies in place and then broke the glass. To be sure, with no coins and the trips in a bag, it didn't look very imposing and he was pleased to sell it to me cheaply. Nice game, but no good with thin or bent coins.

I'll let you know what the condition is when I get it delivered from Margate, here's hoping most of it is in place....

I'm beavering away on the elite, the case and door is now sorted and is a lovely solid oak finish with nickel plated metalwork, and the rust and cobwebs eradicated, but I'm not sure what the playfield finish should be. It seems to be just a coat of worn out green paint onto blockboard. I can't tell from the 2nd picture what the finish should be, so has any one any ideas?

I don't know about the Elite, but the versions I've seen have plain painted backboards. It has to be something that won't create too much friction against the coins.

Some more examples.

Here's the Meyers version of this game. He improved it by putting the coin entry on the front but had to hinge the door on the left!

This example is called Blue Wonder from the Hong Kong Works catalogue.

Dropcase machines was the norm for almost 50 years in Norway. Came in all kinds of variations; from fully mechanical to modern electronic ones. Here you see my collection; or most of it anyway.

You have a nice collection there, Bamsefarl.

Very nice collection, Bamsefarl . Particularly envy you the one with the painted sea scene. Lovely. Just translated it using this new-fangled Google-wotsit to 'Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue'. Even better.

I am the current custodian of the Skill Touch shown earlier in this thread and it is a firm favourite in my family - particularly with the grandkids.

Thank you for kind feedback.
I also have some classic UK-allwin-machines in my collection. You know; the type with ball bearing looping from the down right side into a payout-slot. As I anderstand these machiens were the common ones during decades in the UK; the flick-a-coin-machines were the standard in Norway; and even more in Finland.

In Norway, the majority of these machines was operated by charity organizations; like the Red cross.

The painted one is as you found out by using Google-translate; a drop-case which generated money for a society which main motivation is to work proactive for preventing accidents at sea; and have a network of rescue boats along the Norwegian coastline which rescue sailers in distress.

The most expensive dropcase machines have a value equivalent to approx. £3500. But most machines in the Norwegian market go for £300 to 1200, depending on type and condition.

One of my more exotic drop-case machines, is the Tap a Fruit from Dennis Jezzard. It combines a drop-case machine and a "one armed bandit". I have a video of this one under "See it Operate".

So the "Tap a fruit", and Bell fruits "Cascade" are the only "modern" (read 1960 and upward) UK drop-case machines I know of.
Do any of you know of other manufacturers/models of this type (in which the coin is flicked with skill into a playfield) ?

Thanks for that interesting insight into the history of Scandinavian "skill" amusement machines. Flick-coin games are almost exclusively Germanic. As you say, the allwin predominated here. In fact, the classic flick-coin, where you whack the coin with your hand from the right side of the machine over a series of targets, was almost non-existent here until the 1970s when Bell Fruit made the Cascade. The Cascade was really just a copy of a much earlier foreign design that can be seen on German games of the 1930s. Most of the few pre-decimal examples in the UK are either German made or copies thereof.

My guess is that the old British penny was not well suited for this sort of machine, particularly the classic Fingerschlägers where the coins rest against trips and wheels awaiting payout. The big old pennies were flat and thin and became less flat and more thin as they remained in circulation for decades. As such, they were prone to block any game which depended upon the coins being of consistent dimensions.

There are many early British drop case games where the coin is usually propelled by a trigger from the bottom (Tivoli style) and others where the coin is simply dropped from the top (Tip Em Off, Challenger, Cromptons Wall Machines, etc.) These usually have mechanisms that are not too fussy about coin dimensions. Others, like the Challenger, rely on the coin validator to throw out bad coins. Nevertheless, playfield coin jams were not uncommon on Challengers.

A few on your list, like the Jamieson Mini-Golf and NSM Big Strike, don't quite belong to this class because they use balls in place of the coin.

currently on German Ebay

http://www.ebay.de/itm/totomat-bally-wu ... 5afabed601

Wow!

1999 Euro equals
1647.02 British Pound Sterling

That's a lot of handbag

It's not alone in the "Wow" department,

try this Beromat derivative for £437!

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Geldspielautomat ... 3a8a9d8819

got one thats a bit different, looks like an earlier version of a cascade, has a golf theme

Treff Steiner, 1949 appears to be your machine Dave. The golf graphics were presumably added to jazz it up.

some good sleuthing dave, didnt realise these treff machines were operated here