Belt mounted coin changers - do you have one?

smalltownguy2

Well-known member

Donor 2013
Joined
Dec 30, 2008
Messages
17,076
Reaction score
2,650
Location
Osceola, Wisconsin
Saw a recent for sale thread on a coin changer, and this popped into my head:

mc742oa.jpg


Remember the arcade ops BITD, wearing these? I always thought they were kind of neat. Does anyone here own one?

It would be neat to keep one on display in the arcade. I don't seem to see very many of them on feePay - about a dozen or so. Where'd they all go?

EDIT: I'm not really looking to buy one, rather just start a topic for others to discuss them. I always thought they were kind of iconic.
 
Don't have one, but would love to have one that had all the same sized tubes (quarter or token). All the ones I've seen have multiple sized tubes for nickels, dimes, and quarters.
 
Ooooooohhhh.....puuuurty.

41acBS61EhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


I think if I got one, though, I'd want one that was used to dispense change in an actual arcade somewhere.
 
Been looking for one of these as well. So far I've only been able to find one that's configurable up to 2 tubes for quarters. Not sure if they have one available that's fully modular or not. :\
 
When I worked at an arcade it was just a dirty old pouch filled with change and dollars. Hands would be so nasty at the end of the day.
 
I have intended to buy one of these for a long time. I just placed an order for one that dispenses quarters, dimes, and nickels. Am I the only person with games that use all three? I love my old EM machines and some of them couldn't be converted to take quarters without damaging the machine...

51xFAjh3IrL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
 
(Major necro bump...10 years later!)

Did some searching and found a few threads...this one seemed most relevant.

Tonight I got my dad to tell me the story of his own Lynde-Ordway coin changer. He grew up in New Orleans and took the buses and streetcars around town to his weekly music lesson and then later to get to and from high school. The fare was seven cents, and the conductors would make change for the passengers. They had to have lots of pennies to dispense quickly, so they used these coin changers. He remembers that the ones they used had five barrels, and that they could adjust them to dispense however many coins they wanted to. So not just the denomination for each barrel, but also the amount of coins.

Fast forward a few decades, to the 80s. My dad picked me up from one of the arcades I frequented (probably the Spaceport in the Lehigh Valley Mall in Allentown, PA) and noticed a young woman who was wearing the exact same coin belt changer that he remembered from his childhood. He asked if he could see it up close. He found the company information on the changer and later sent away for one. The one he bought has four barrels.

According to him, the original company name was Johnson, named after the inventor.

Amazing that this company is still around!


My own memory of these changers is from my time in Spaceport, which was a very popular and busy arcade. These young guys would walk around the arcade and notice if you got out a dollar bill. They had their radar on, you know! They'd be right there at the sight of your bill, take it, and then squeeze out your quarters real fast. I do seem to recall also that they could dispense four quarters at a time, and not just one by one.

Thus my dad did participate in the arcade phenomenon in his own way. Never ever a gamer, nor would he set foot in an arcade if he could help it. But he owns this slice of arcade history and I guess American history going back even further than what I remember.
 
My brother and I used to have one of these when we were little kids. I have no idea where it came from. I probably still have it in a box somewhere.
 
Seriously need to be Turbo -Nerd status to rock one of those.
That describes me to a tee haha.

It's been several meets since I last donned one. But it elicits a few laughs and grins every time I hand out quarters.

This thread reminds me to get back to doing it.

The ultimate nerd would be the guy or gal who wears one while they play so don't have to go to the change machine to reload, lol.
 
Back
Top Bottom