As you can see aluminum castings were cleaned and buffed to a brilliant shine, very few of the deep scratches and dings are still aparent. These battle scars were left to stay true to the age of the machine. They show that this was infact the workhorse of Vegas during the prohibition period. It is a beautiful piece of American history with a factory true reproduction Vens mint card on the front. Afterall this was not a slot machine, it was a "mint vending machine" because in 1926, during prohibition, gambling (and every "slot machine") was illegal.

The top marque is an ORIGINAL mills issue advertising marquee with a custom made payoff card. The handle, gooseneck and payoff card frames have been recently chromed and the mint vendor operates as it should. It vends one roll of mints every time you put in a nickel and pull the handle. If a token (or check) is played you do not get a mint, however you still are able to play the reels.

The Vens mints are reproduction labels made to original specifications wrapped around dowels.

The paint is true to how the machine shipped from the factory. There were a couple different combinations of colors shipped with this machine in 1926. This is the most common of those factory color combimations. The cabinet is entirely ORIGINAL issue, stained a rich red mahogany and coated with 5 coats of gloss polyurathane. As you can see the ORIGINAL F.O.K. Vender patent plaquered still exists on this machine on the left side of the cabinet! And we couldn't forget about the Mills company emblum on the upper back of both sides!

During the restoration we do not forget about the mechanism. Every piece of this mechanism is disassembled, polished, coated with a clear rust retardant (not gray primer as other restorers use-that was NEVER done by Mills). Springs and screws which needed to be replaced or rethreaded were. So this machanism is as clean as you will ever see one of its age! It plays as well, or better than the first day it shipped from the Mills factory on Fulton Street in Chicago. The ORIGINAL tin reel strips are still in good condition and are on the machine. They have a little rust but we are going to leave it to your decision to replace them. We hate to replace original perfectly good parts that really don't need to be. If I were keeping the machine I would leave them original (unfortunately, I need to pay the bills so the machine must go).

In this photo take special note of the ORIGINAL backplate (in the left bottom corner) that goes behind the gooseneck. 90% of all machines these days are without the original.

If you look very closely at the baseplate in this photo or the detail to the left you will see a very rare accessory Mills put in their early machines only, a lever attached to a safety plate which closes the payoff chute when the machine is not being used. It prevents people with long fingers(really long) from gretting up there. This, again ORIGINAL accessory, is present and operational in this machine! They were usually taken out of the machines by the propriator of the establishment where the machine resided because it was an unnecessary item and was just one more thing that could go wrong. However, to truely keep you machine Mill's original this piece must be there!

The ORIGINAL back door is in great shape and fits the machine like a glove. It is finished with a tough wrinkle flat black paint just as it was from the factory and comes complete with an ORIGINAL Mills lock and key! You can see in the picture to the right the machine also comes with an ORIGINAL lock and lock door for the cash box. That makes 3 ORIGINAL Mills factory locks in this machine (1 backdoor, 1 cashbox door and 1 on the front mint compartment).

This machine even has the ORIGINAL screws holding the top of the gooseneck to the top casting, most of the glass is the original leaded glass, original backplate behind the gooseneck (I could go on)....

This Mills 1926 F.O.K. Vender is, in all likelyhood the most complete and Completely ORIGINAL prohibition period slot machine you will ever lay your eye on, so don't pass up the chance to bid on a truely rare piece of American history!

Don't wait, bid now.

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