Hi from new US member

[walternewton]

I've been collecting coin-op games since about 1976, have had (and sold off) two major collections, and now, at 68-years-old, a pensioner on a fixed income, I've started up a new collection, abet small, since I don't have the physical space for dozens of machines like in the past.

I live in the Rockies Mountains of Colorado, about 40 miles west of Denver. It's still winter up here, it was 0(F) this morning and we had five inches of new snow on the ground from an overnight storm.

I retired as a programmer of 40 years when I was 60, but went right back to work as an editor of a weekly newspaper in the mountains here.

I remember when Britain was changing over to the decimal coinage system, and wall games (like Alwin's), were being shipped to the U.S. in full containers. They were not that popular among U.S. collectors, but I loved them, mainly due to the low prices.

Now I see the prices have soared, Alwins that were selling for $25 in the 70s now command $500-800 over here. I also owned a number of Rotomat-style games and other wall-mounted European games.

I also had a nice collection of console slots, bingo pinball machines, and more modern Bally EM slots.

Current collections consists of eight machines, two of which are full size slots (a Mills 1931 FOK Vender and a 1929 Watling single-jackpot Blue Seal), a Mills Vest Pocket, and a number of trade stimulators, including a penny drop from 1921.

Oh, and I have a Columbia which is now in great mechanical shape (after wrestling with it for months) but I have totally taken the wood case apart. It was water-logged and needs to be completely rebuilt.

That's about it, hi from this side of the pond.

[treefrog]

Welcome Walter........it was snowing here until about a week ago, finally we have spring......

I wish I could have been around at this end with all the machines going into containers back in the day

[walternewton]

I can understand.

I kept a supply of English large cents to feed the games.

[slotjunky]

Hello Walter,

Welcome to the forum. My dad lives in Evergreen Co. should be somewhere around your corner. Where do you get your parts for the slot machines? Do you have a local source?
Post a some pictures of your machines.

[walternewton]

I live in Conifer, so yes, Evergreen is about 20 miles north of me.

Parts ... Ebay, other dealers ... other collectors on the CoinOpCollectorForum.com

[badpenny]

Hello walternewton ......

We're delighted you've joined us and shall immediately put a small thatched cottage to one side for you.

We have other members from Americaland, one of whom I shall leave to introduce himself, he knows more about English Allwins than most of us together. (Cue John Peterson; enter stage left).
As slotjunky said we love photos, so please dig them out for us.

BP

[highfield]

Hi Walter
I know your area very well. Have friends in Aurora and have probably passed you by on many occasions. Any pictures of your new, albeit small collection

[walternewton]

Some pictures ...

[john t peterson]

Hello, Walter and welcome to PennyMachines, the best darn coin-op site on the web. Here, you will find a wealth of information on all types of machines, not just British, as well as an intelligent membership willing to share their time and expertise at an extraordinary level.

Interesting that you have an interest in British coin-op. That has been my passion since the early '80's. As you mentioned, back in the day, very few Americans had any interest in British or even European machines. That definitely worked to my advantage. In one instance, I purchased over 70 machines, mostly allwins, from a pair of California antique dealers. The games came from an old collector who stored them in a rail car parked next to his manufacturing factory. He purchased them over the years from a California department store that offered them for sale around Christmas, no doubt acquired from some of those antique container shipments that transferred a huge amount of British coin-op to the States in the '70's.

So, join in the fun with the merry members here. You will not be disappointed.

By the way, my daughter lives in Salida, just a few mountaintops away from you. Part of my family history is in Colorado, a beautiful state.

John Peterson
Fellow Yank currently in TN

[walternewton]

Hi John,

When I worked for the newspaper, my publisher was located in Salida. They own three mountain weeklies and the Mountain Mail, which is the Salida daily.

Yes, I always like the wall machines, but now, in the U.S., when they do come up for sale, the sellers want too much money for them. Way over the actual value.

I really liked the Challenger-styled machines.

And it costs too much to have them shipped from Europe.