Star

The rarest of the rare has inexplicably surfaced out of the woodwork, for collectors of antique musical machinery, coin-op gambling or even tobacciania. At the top of the list of most collectable cigar store trade stimulators were the three great giants: The Yale, the Almy, and the most rarely seen of them all, the Star Trade Register.

Yes, folks, a Star Trade Register has surfaced, and it will be featured at the Opportunities Auction in Newnan, Georgia. Outside of its extreme rarity, the most unusual aspect of this machine is that it was never used in a retail location. It spent 90 years of its existence still in its original shipping crate. The advertising cards that revolve in the top window of the machine are still the originals from the factory. There is no wear or use on any of the mechanism parts. The case shows only signs of age and not use. It is for all intents and purposes, a virgin. Of the other three known examples of this machine, two have been 100% restored and are in private collections and the third (Serial #46) is an incomplete cabinet sitting in a museum.

It is a wonderful 7-foot tall floor model trade stimulator encased in an oak cabinet. Designed to go in cigar stores, it was a marvel in simplicity of design. A player would deposit a nickel in the slot at the top to start the mechanism in motion. No cranks would be pulled or rotated, just the weight of the customers nickels would be all that was required to actuate the four cast iron bull wheels. These wheels were more heavily weighted on one side by the nickels and allowed to move one position only by adding a new coin. These would in turn trigger a disc music box, dispenser for trade tokens good for 1, 2 or 3 cigars and a primitive motor, which turned an advertising carousel and odds wheel. The shopkeeper would then wind the music box on regular intervals.

This particular machine, serial number 72, was manufactured at the Star Trade Register Company in Montpelier, Vermont in about 1903 or shortly thereafter. The company was founded in 1900 as a partnership with one of the partners, a Charles R. Smith, the inventor of the machine. They originally purchased Regina Style 15 coin-op disc music players as the attraction to draw in the players to the machine, but in 1903 switched to what we find factory installed on this machine: a 15 1/2" Style 11 Regina coin-op disc music. The company closed it's doors in 1909 after a very short production run.