Mills hi top

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polaris
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Mills hi top

Post by polaris »

Please can anyone shed any light on my latest addition. Had this Mills hi top delivered and personally have never came across this gold award set up. It has a separate gold award payout which is loaded in a slot in the side of the machine. I love the colour scheme on the machine and this is a lovely bonus having this set up.
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grains
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Re: Mills hi top

Post by grains »

Wow lovely Hi Top polaris and I think gold award payout is quite a desireable fetaure on this machine.
I have a Special Award fitted to a later Sega machine and the payout is tripped by 3 overprinted stars on the reel strips.
There is a long lever mounted to the anti-reverse lever that runs through the mechanism and this is activated by 3 deep horizontal grooves cut in the payout discs which allows the gold award lever to move forward far enough to make contact with the payout trip and pays out the token.
Do you have any photo's of the mechanism on your machine? Does the 777 combination on the reel strips award the token?
Really nice refill slot on the side of the machine. I haven't seen one of these before.
polaris
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Re: Mills hi top

Post by polaris »

Hi grains, the sevens do indeed payout gold award token. I have managed to find reference to another, although picture quality is not great. I’m guessing now that slot in the side is a modification to allow the award chute to be filled externally, although can’t imagine why someone would go to those lengths; it can’t have paid out all that often. Nice touch all the same. Would be good to see pics of another.
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treefrog
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Re: Mills hi top

Post by treefrog »

Token awards are not uncommon on Hi tops, but the fill slot on the side is almost certainly an operator modification and certainly not a factory option. You can see the crude tin top part to the gold award mechanism which has been soldered together. As you say, seems like a lot of effort for three tokens, but I guess it means you can leave it all week in a busy site.

I also wonder if the two halves of the castings started together. They look old hammered paint but may have been put together. Are they both Mills stamped?
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coppinpr
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Re: Mills hi top

Post by coppinpr »

The gold award payout mech was around for a long time. I have one as standard on my pre-war Mills Extraordinary and another on a late Sega hi-top.
My guess is the gold award fill was added by a paranoid operator who was scared someone opening the machine to fill the GA would have access to the jackpot. By simply tripping the JP by hand they could steal the pot. I agree with Tom and think the top casting is later than the bottom one.
polaris
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Re: Mills hi top

Post by polaris »

Thanks for info guys. I had an inkling before I bought this that perhaps it may have been painted. I can’t imagine the screws started out gold coloured (must have been painted a long time ago), but I liked the colour scheme and it had an escalator and jackpot. Never gave a thought that the castings had been swapped out, and it seems you may be correct. The bottom casting, which I assumed was original colour, is stamped Mills, but the upper casing has no stamp, back hood stamped T2?
Looking at the award plate, also looks crudely fitted.
Now I need to get the jackpot out and figure what is going on as it doesn't trip when it’s supposed to.
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