Jennings Trade Stimulator queries

[JP]

a colleague knows i collect and restore slots and stuff, [refurbish is the word as im no expert].

anyway he has brought in a trade stimulator, made by OD Jennings, it has the inner paperwork
still in the machine, stating that serial number is 2901 and 2901 is stamped on the baseplate metal
too so they both match up. it operates very smoothly on US X1 Cent and the reels feature cigarette
brands of a bygone age. The reel strips are oily but not torn and display well. the wood cabinet has
a patent number stamped on the handle side which is illegible to my eye I am afraid. It has a cast
back door with integral but separate smaller door, [cashbox access lock?]. There is no cashbox
with the machine, [presumably it would have had one under the baseplate?].

the posting is to try to identify the age of the machine, via the serial number maybe? or by the fact
that its x1 cent and not higher denomination coin?

how rare it may or may not be?

whether anything else is missing or wrong?

also is the cup casting on the handle side for coin return [or maybe a free gumball?]

anyway any help would be greatly appreciated.

i have a number of jennings bandits but have never owned any trade stimulators.

kind regards neil

[badpenny]

Hi Neil .... I haven't seen your machine before but have several Trade Stims tastefully littering the house and generally getting in the way.

My experience has been that they generally do no more than haphazardly spin reels, stop suddenly and at the most give you a dried up manky gumball. One or two of mine may half heartedly thow a token at you for exchanging with the shop owner, but that seems to rely heavily on which way the winds blowing and the flux of The Earth at that time!

The cup on yours looks to be directly under the coin in slot, I can't see a tube to hold tokens so I guess it would a coin return. There doesn't look to be room for a gumball dispenser.
As for there being anything missing, it seems to have a nice robust clock on it and all the necessary bits to make the reels spin and stop, so I guess the answer lies with you, does it do that? If so then probably not.
It probably would have been a case of ....
"Ooh look Mr. Shop owner, I've got three packs the same in the window, you owe me a packet of Lucky Strike"

If it were mine I'd probably be tempted to investigate how to remove Hammerite.

As for age, until someone more knowledgeable wakes up, I'd hazard a guess at the 30's but .....?
I've just had a bowl of Tesco's own brand Wheaty Bangs as we can't afford Kellogs now that the Governor of the bank of England came clean yesterday and confirmed we are going into recession, what a shock, I didn't see that one coming.

[pennymachines]

The nearest I can find is in Dick Bueschel's Guide to Vintage Trade Stimulators and Counter Games:

Jennings PENNY STAR and STAR VENDER, 1936. O.D. Jennings and Company of Chicago went for counter games in a big way in 1936 with CLUB VENDER, a token pay cigarette machine almost as large as a full sized slot. They took the same mechanism and put it in a smaller cabinet without the token dispenser as STAR PENNY PLAY, adding a gum vending model called STAR (PENNY PLAY) VENDER. In an attempt to make them look classy with a bronze front, they ended up looking grim.

I have to agree the design is not inspired. The one on the right has the gum vending feature; the other looks more like yours. Perhaps the bronze star has been painted over or polished off? I wonder if the cup on the side is for coin return on certain symbols? It should be possible to work this out by examining the mechanism.

[daveslot]

i would guess this was "modernised" with a new front when it arrived in britain