These are definitely Aust made, though copied from earlier US machines. This was written about them by Bob in an earlier thread on Aust made machines. Though he doesn't mention that they also turn up in cast alloy cases as well. Australian manufactured coin op machines. I'd guess that Nutt and Muddle purchased them during the 1950s to operate or resell themselves, as machines of any kind were rare and impossible to import because of post wartime trade restrictions that ran a long time.
bob wrote: ↑Mon Jun 11, 2018 8:19 amThis trade stimulator gambling machine was made by a Sydney game manufacturer A.O. Buchanan of whom not much is known. Copied from and looking like a machine from the 1800s, it was made by Buchanan in 1937. Some were chrome plated as this one was; others were copper plated with a Florentine Bronze finish. It was a copy of the Little Duke, a trade stimulator that was the third machine made by Mills of Chicago in 1898. A version without the curved edges was made by the American Royal Novelty Company as the Royal Trader and then by Mills Novelty Company as the Mills Trader in 1904. The Australian machine simplified the betting variations into a more basic version by adding the name “The Australia” to the casting where the various gaming options were illustrated and relevant coin entries were on the original machines. Interestingly enough, the lovely designs for the cabinets for all these machines were taken from those used by the Chicago Cash Register Company on their cash registers in the early-mid 1890s, most likely a case of the designer recycling earlier successful designs of his or hers.
