Do Like a Necromancer Part 5 Continued: Coin Nostalgia & Gumball Machines

Have you ever considered buying your own gumball machine? Working models from your childhood (and before) years are available and affordable.
   What does a gumball machine have to do with numismatics?
   Well, keep in mind that every gumball represents a wheat cent, or perhaps you prefer a handful of peanuts for a buffalo nickel. Gumball machines stimulate our coin nostalgia. They make the foggy images of our (and a thousand other) childhoods come alive. You can relive the past with a gumball machine. Some of our memories are buried so deep that they will only come forth when you actually insert a penny and pull the lever.
   The first coin-operated vendors sold stick gum. In 1888 the Thomas Adams Gum Company sold Tutti-Frutti on subway platforms in New York City for one cent -- an Indian cent! By 1910, gumball machines had become a regular fixture at cash-and-carry stores.
   Gumballs arrived on the scene in the first years of the 20th century. Legend has it that an anonymous grocer in New York discovered the advantages of coating sticky gum with candy after accidentally dropping a piece in a sugar bin. Bubble gum came later and was first patented by the Fleer Company in 1928 -- it was typically sold in gumball form.

This Atlas Ace is a from the 1930s-1940s. It has a sliding lever that
swallows your wheat cent. It has a one-piece aluminum body with
original red and yellow paint scheme. This one was a counter-top
vendor that provided many years of service in a country store or saloon.

   For the collector, the classic machines from the 1930s on up to the early 1960s can be found for a hundred dollars or less. Even rare machines sell for less than a what coin collectors pay for their coins.
   What a great addition to a collection of cents and nickels. Some of my favorite machines include the Columbus gumball and nut vendors and the Victor family of machines.
   Today I feature an Atlas Ace vendor in original colors of red and yellow with art-deco accents. This was my first gumball machine and still one of my favorites. The Ace was in service before my time, but I love its patina. It works well, and I fill it with wheat cents in return for some "modern" gumballs. Yes, I do have some of the original 1950s gumballs, but they are a bit stale (and hard to chew). Check out the picture: those faded balls are the old ones -- I have subsequently moved them to another machine.
   I cannot think of a more fitting accessory to a cent collection than a gumball machine. For the necromancer who is developing their sense of coin nostalgia, this is the way to go. Folks often ask: Now that I have collected a set of Indians or Lincolns, what do I do next?
   Well, here is your answer: Get a gumball machine; take your pennies out of that stodgy holder, and fill the vendor. On a rainy day, you can open it up, dump them out into a change-dish, and put them in the machine again: one at a time, for gum of course!
   "I can't do that; my cents are all uncirculated!" Well, shame on you. Just re-collect some nice worn ones -- real coins that probably were in a gumball machine (or two) as some point!
   This is the way of the coin necromancer.