Mills Hi Top

[alan57]

Selling off a couple of my Mills Hi Tops to make some room for more projects
Please look in the Market section:
Mills Hi Top 1
Mills Hi Top 2

[treefrog]

Quick point for MR PM, I notice the main pictures in adds do not expand and are always very small. In fact all extra pictures cannot expand either, but are slightly bigger....could be just me of course

Nice machine Alan, I was intrigued by the comment hand-load jackpot as that usually means a hole in where the award plate is for the operator to fill or top up. Your machine has an enlarged jackpot chute to cater for the 1D and no overflow tube to the cash box, so surely this is not hand fill.

I have always been intrigued to know if a true 1D jackpot or 50c jackpot existed for these machines and have never seen one, although I have heard others mention them. Main difference would be the coin chute, also the top plate that drops coins to the cash box when full.....

[alan57]

Hi Tom
The jackpot on the black Hi Top always kept jamming up, old penny seemed to be too big. Much easier to fill the jackpot by hand from inside the cabinet - no jamming of coins now.

Sorry for misleading, my mistake.

[treefrog]

I was just intrigued because the jackpot is in place. It looks like Henry has modified the chute for the 1D. Well, I that assume to be the case as it looks larger. If so, it may just need a bit of tinkering....

[pennymachines]

Quick point for MR PM, I notice the main pictures in adds do not expand and are always very small. In fact all extra pictures cannot expand either, but are slightly bigger....could be just me of course.

They enlarge for me. On desktop and tablet. They will only expand to fill existing screen size.

[treefrog]

Not working on iPad, tiny picture....

[treefrog]

Not really commenting on the hi top in this post, but over the years I have occasionally seen Mills machines with jackpots on old penny or so they claim, but never seen one up close and wondered is a 50c or 1D jackpot ever existed.

Well I must be real dumb and was going through my spare units looking for some working jackpots for a couple of projects I am working on and at the bottom noticed an old jackpot that physically seemed bigger. On closer examination I found the coin chute accepted old pennies and the carcass is 1cm deeper than a standard jackpot, so 9cm instead of 8.....this is to allow for larger access for bigger coins......well I am blown I had one all along, now just need to decide which of my 1D machines it should go on

[daveslot]

That's correct, also the coin chute which sides on top of the jackpot is wider. I seem to remember that the front casting is also deeper, I think!

[treefrog]

That’s interesting Dave, so I may not be able to stick straight into a machine. I can’t recall what machines had deeper fronts.....

I might try anyway and see if there is enough room

[aristomatic]

I've had a few 50c/1D Hi Tops. Nearly all missing the jackpot. Like TF, I have only the one complete 50c jackpot. I agree with Daveslot that there are 50c Hi Top casting sets where the lower front casting is deeper and the top front casting is different to "normal", so it fits this deeper lower casting. I've had four of these sets and they all had top casting where the 50c coin entry hole is offset to the normal 5c/10c/25c coin entry position, and of course the 50c escalator behind is offset too.

As the lower casting is deeper, another resultant difference is that the payout bumper apron shape is different to the normal shape. The two I currently have with this deeper casting also have the offset coin entry. The bumper aprons on these are the normal shape, but the lower casting has a cut into it to accept the bumper apron, but the apron doesn't fit flush to the cabinet leading edge. The previous two again had the offset coin entry, but the bumper apron was shaped to abut the leading edge of the cabinet with no need to cut into the lower casting.

Maybe the offset 50c casting sets all had the deeper casting option. I've had a few Mills 1d casting sets where the coin entry isn't offset and the lower casting is not deeper, but whether these were originally 50c or 1D, and whether they had jackpots fitted originally, I don't know.

Here's a picture of one of the current offset 50c deeper casting set Mills Hi Tops I have with the cut on the lower casting for the bumper apron. If you search Mills 50 cent Hi Top on YouTube you will see Mantiques Network has a couple of 50c machine videos with same offset 50 cent coin entry with the deeper casting set, again with cut. I'm just not sure the normal coin entry position 50c casting sets had deeper lower castings?

[grains]

Hi Aristomatic,
Quick question - does the top casting in your photograph also have the hole in front for the hand refill jackpot?
Thanks

[aristomatic]

Yes, they do.

[treefrog]

I knew about these offset 50c machines, but never owned one. I have an escalator for one like fish mouth, but with coin entry attached. Did not know they had a deeper belly. So I may not be able to use mine, but will try on an earlier machine like a Bursting Cherry. Interesting as my jackpot has no locking bar, which initially I thought maybe missing, but wondered if the slides hold back the jackpot arm only releasing the jackpot when the top slide goes. I have a mech with a bar attached to the to slide maybe used for this purpose.

I have some non offset Hi Tops on 1D, suspect they were modified back in the day

[aristomatic]

For Grains,
This offset top casting was at the Elephant House last year. It doesn't have hand-load or award card fastening holes, or right-hand nameplate hole. It is stamped MLB inside. You see so many different options you can never be really sure what's original factory, or later operator versions, manufacturer collaboration, or just knockoffs of the same period.

Hope that helps you.

[grains]

Thanks Aristomatic for the information.
I have a 1d Mills which I think is a conversion from the later Bell-o-Matic casting with coin entry at the right where the denominator badge would usually be. It's a direct drop into the mechanism. Do the 1d jackpot units have a reserve, or does the large coin size make this prohibitive?

[treefrog]

Yup they have a reserve, just bigger case for larger coin.

[treefrog]

Well I have gotten to the bottom of my mystery large jackpot, which is 1D, but fits a Extraordinary I have, the 50C version, well old penny. What threw me is another extraordinary I had it also fitted that is a lower denomination. I now have concluded both are 50c lower castings as you cannot tell the difference between them on the outside, they just have different mounting positions inside for the jackpot.

Well at least I can return one to normal and suspect other genuine 50c machine from the period used these. Odd I had never seen one before, but good to learn something new..

[alan57]

Selling 2 Hi Tops in the market section, as I need the room:
Mill Hi Top working on 1d,
Mill Hi Top working on 1c