GUEST
Well, I just got up on a Saturday morning and went out to a little local yard sale area around, pulled up to a garage sale and spoke to a lady there that said she was selling everything in her garage. I looked back and at a distance away, I saw part of something that caught my eye, so I go back and start digging around and this is what I came out of there with.
APPRAISER
So this was back in the garage?
GUEST
Back in the garage.
APPRAISER
And they didn't haul it out on the lawn?
GUEST
No, they didn't. Actually, she said she kind of forgot that it was even back there. I just know it's an old slot machine.
APPRAISER
It's made by a company called Watling in Chicago. And they were one of the makers of some of the most desirable slot machines. A lot of them have this coin motif. Slot machines back in the day were not in casinos like they are now.
These were sold to bars, candy shops. So, what interesting is a lot of them didn't survive because, sometimes they ended up in the junk pile. In the 1930s and late 20s the mayors were having anti-vice crusades and they would pick up as many of these as they could find. There's a great photograph in New York City of them throwing these off the truck and smashing them up with sledgehammers.
GUEST
Wow.
APPRAISER
So this is a survivor and I'm glad you found it. It is made by Watling, Watling Manufacturing Company in Chicago. Watling made these in the 1930s. They were in business up until 1960s.
They made scales, they made all kinds of machines. But this is what they're most remembered for, these wonderful slot machines. And one of the signature elements of them is that they would have this cast-iron coin motif. Interesting about this machine is it's a one-cent machine, and they're fairly rare.
It's hard to imagine that they would do all this just to make pennies. And what's interesting about that is right here is a little sight glass and they all had this, or most of them did. That's so the guy, the vendor could look in there and make sure they didn't put in a slug. It's hard to imagine somebody putting in a slug as a penny.
It is Watling, and it's all marked, as we see here. You can see on the back the Watling logo. They're very desirable machines. Unfortunately, somebody back in the day, and this often happened with these - this is repainted.
This silver paint is new. But that doesn't hurt it that much. Is it in working condition?
GUEST
What happened - me and a friend, we were just tinkering around and had it setting on a couch. And we turned it up and got the money coming out. I really wasn't concerned hurting it. And he had tilted it around there and he got ahold of the handle and it came down and it came past that stopping thing.
He said, here get ahold. And we did pull it down and the reels turned on it.
APPRAISER
Oh, it did?
GUEST
It did.
APPRAISER
So it's just frozen up.
GUEST
It's frozen up right there.
APPRAISER
It's not a big deal to fix this.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
At auction, a machine, even with this repaint today, would probably bring at auction around $1,500.
GUEST
$1,500.
APPRAISER
So you made a good buy, a lot of pennies.
GUEST
I paid $80.00 for it.
APPRAISER
That's wonderful. If it were original, it would be about $2,500-$3,000.
Passport
Follow Us