1932 Mills "Official" Pinball Machine (For Sale)

 

  

This machine is a 1930s Pinball bagatelle machine I recently acquired in trade. The term "pinball" actually refers to an earlier time when these machine had "pin" or small nails in the board to redirect the balls plunged to the top of the field. This machine is especially significant in the history of pinball because this is the first ever game that was called a "Pinball" machine. All previous machines were "Pin Games". 

More information about this Pinball machine is available at:

  http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=4963

For $.05, a player got 10 balls to play. One of the ten balls was a brownish red color, the rest were white. The red ball is worth double points. The player would count up their points at the end and claim their prize from the location. This machine has a distinctive Art Deco appearance with stair stepped sides and a chrome diamond shaped plunger cover. This is a great piece of history and an interesting game to play. You'll notice a picture of the machine next to my Pharaoh machine to compare sizes. There is no back box. The machine and legs are made of wood. As you can see in the video, there is a spring loaded board underneath the playing surface. When a nickle is pushed into the coin mechanism, the mechanism pushes the spring loaded board forward dropping the marbles into a lower level. Gravity carries them back towards the collection plate and the plate funnels them back to the plunger. This could be a wonderful piece for your collection.