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What I Need/Want: Remember Those Revolving Coin Display Cases in Woolworth's?
RichR
Posts: 3,849 ✭✭✭✭✭
Remember those old display cases from the 1960s and 1970s...with the two buttons to advance the trays forward and backward...in the coin departments of many department stores?
How great would it be to have one of those cases today, to display many of your slabs in one easy to see place?
Has anyone ever seen one of them on sale on eBay?
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Yes, I remember Woolworth's having them. My dealer friend's shop has them all over her place. I like 'em. Lol
"Jesus died for you and for me, Thank you,Jesus"!!!
--- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.If I recall correctly, at least some of those machines had a red button to make the trays revolve in one direction and a black button to reverse the direction. For those not familiar with these displays, think of free-swinging shelves hanging from a rotisserie chicken as it revolves around the horizontal, center spit.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
There called Whirlybird's (the coin slang term)
I used to have two in the old shop. Dont any longer. They are hard to keep maintained and expensive if they break down.
Carolina pawn here in fayetteville had two for sale at one time
I know of a couple of coin shops in my area that still have those. They are awesome.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Right...if I remember as a kid...I think they have a chain type pulley drive on one side to rotate the trays, which kinda hang like gondola cars on a Ferris wheel.
And yes, one button was black and the other was red.
I wonder if slabs would fit in the trays? I think they usually held 2x2 coin flips back in the day.
I wonder how much it would cost to ship something like that even if you could find it?
Where was I when Woolworth's, Macy's, Gimbels, Wannamakers, etc. closed their coin departments? They probably just threw them out!
Liberty Coins in Signal Hill CA still has 2 or 3 of them functioning in their shop. (One is a little flaky, but I've become fairly adept at pushing the button just right....)
Nice little shop, if you're ever in the area....
I remember those in the department stores quite well. One coin shop in the area still has a couple.
<<There called Whirlybird's (the coin slang term)>>
Wasn't Whirlybird a pinball machine maker back in the day? I wonder if there's any connection?
One shop that I know has two of them and they hold 2x2s but another shop I know has a newer model of sorts and it holds SLABS.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Question...for all the old(er) timers out there...when did coin and stamp departments in stores really become a thing...because most downtown stores seemed to have one tucked away in the basement,,,not far from the sporting department or credit office!
My personal recollection goes back to the late '60s/early 70s...but did it go back to the 50s...or even the 40s?
Or were there stamp departments first? Honest question?
The antique shops here in the San Jose area have these display cases
Yes. I remember them very well. One thing I do miss
I don't.
my old boss has two of them, one in each store. it has been rumored that someone in Michigan had about 75 of them in a warehouse. evidently there isn't a real market for them although some hold the fondly in their memories. as for displaying slabs, the ones my old boss owns had two different size trays: one size easily held slabs vertically oriented which could be viewed, the other size was a bit small for PCGS/SEGS slabs(they still fit) but held NGC/ANACS/misc. slabs running horizontally.
it might be harder, next to impossible, to get more trays while maintaining the machine would be much easier.
apparently they are still available, brand new.
spindisplay.com/bmc
Damn! They are proud of them suckers. $3200.00
I have not been there in a while but my local coin shop still has those revolving cases.
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
I recall them in the local five and dime here when I was a kid...they had them in the fifties....both the large and the smaller ones for the counter top...Used them in the jewelry department too...Cheers, RickO
They used to made by 'Berg'. They were called 'motion showcases'......
Loved 'em......
Round and round an round they go ... Morgans, Morgans and more Morgans ... that is how I remember them.
They are still around ... and the Morgans are still going around, around, around.
I don't even remember Woolworth's.
One of my local pawn stores uses one for coins... By the time the thing finally does a full rotation my mind is usually on tacos and no longer coins.
[I don't even remember Woolworth's.]
Oh I'm sorry to hear that...for a kid a classic Woolworth's was a cheap dream come true!
Want a hot dog and a slurpee, we got those against the wall; want a goldfish or a parakeet, those are downstairs.
How about a plastic tank or some toy soldiers? No...how about 500 Matchbox cars or some helium ballons, we got those too!
Oh yeah...and some cheap coins and stamps too...all going around and around.
Total price for everything above...maybe $20!
PS...for some reason...and maybe a psychiatrist can explain this...but I can still remember my grandmother buying me a 500-piece super set of the then brand new Lego toy at a Woolworth's on Long Island...in 1974! Now how can I remember that but not remember what I ate on Friday??? I think it cost her $14.99...and why would I remember that too?
Memories are a funny thing.
OMG...I can't believe they're still made!!! Damn you for finding them: $3,200!!!!
I might need to twist my wife's arm for Christmas...big time!!!
Those machines were in the FANCY Woolworth's like the "world's largest Woolworths" in Boston. Down in the sticks, where I grew up, it was a book with a lock that held a bar on the top of the pages.
The most expensive coin in the book, ever, was the 1939-D nickel in VF-EF @ $13.00. That was a very high price for it. The piece of "sucker bail" were the "California gold factional pieces" @ $2.00 each. They were dated in the 1850s, but there was a bear on the reverse. You know what the only saying is. "When you see the bear, beware."
A couple of the local antique stores still have those type of display counters.
Cool Thread!
Bringing back memories. Woolworth's / "The Dime Store"!
"Jesus died for you and for me, Thank you,Jesus"!!!
--- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.I remember those display cases.
...life was simpler then...not necessarily better, but simpler.
Yep... I've spun a few of those trays in my time....
The only Woolworth's I remember was the one my mom took me to on Jaimaca Ave, in Queens NY. This was early 1990s and she bought me my first Game Boy which included Tetris. Don't remember any coins though.
My dealer has one in his shop.
I always bought my kites from Woolworth's. I also liked those balsa airplanes with the rubber band. Cool cheap toys. I loved that place. Mine was on Milwaukee ave right down from six corners. Kee's and Sears were right at Six Corners. Sears use to have a coin shop on the lower level. Lots of fun when I was a kid.
Sorry I got a bit nostalgic and got of topic.
I looked through one before I sat at my desk and to my surprise, this thread was here!
This is awesome.
@RichR
I do remember when my local Woolworth's was closing the coin/hobby dept. and I asked if the coins were going to be put on clearance sale. The clerk said he didn't know. I came back the next day and the rotating coin displays were emptied. So there was never an opportunity to snag something good and cheap. I think this was around 1976. I can say it has been close to 44 years since I have given this a thought!
[I can say it has been close to 44 years since I have given this a thought!]
I think about it more often than that...here's a hallway in my basement...and yes, they do light!
[Sorry I got a bit nostalgic and got of topic.]
Nostalgia is good!
I honestly don’t remember them being used for coins. But I remember them full of Timex watches.
Watches...and Zippo lighters...and coins...and fish and tackle gear...all sorts of manly man stuff!!!!
My "local" coin shop has them still in use. They're great.
The coin shop in the Seattle Convention Center has them. John Konrad is the owner, they were transferred from the old Frederick & Nelson department store coin shop, which is now the Nordstrom flagship store. Scroll down in the link to see images.
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x54906ab51d1e0c63:0xd88e76c47282874a!3m1!7e115!4shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipOJefOK2J5QzxAjt_MD5jINdAyzVf30NDE3uoB1=w325-h218-n-k-no!5scoin shop seattle convention - Google Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipOJefOK2J5QzxAjt_MD5jINdAyzVf30NDE3uoB1
OK...that's a very nice store; sadly I don't think anything like that exists in the state pf New York anymore!
At least not stocking stamps and coins to the exclusion of all else!
From one of my favorite movies.
“We was beat up by a Bible salesman and banished from Woolworths. I dont know, Everett, was it the one branch or all of them?"
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Years ago a sportscard shop I visited had one displaying cards. Trouble with that was the lighting tended to fade the cards if they were left in there long enough. Also kids tended to tie up the viewing playing with the buttons.
You could always build your own
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life was simpler then...not necessarily better, but simpler.
given current circumstances I believe many would agree with better.
W. T. Grant's had one in there store at one time for there coins
Another thing...when I was a kid...all men (never a woman) behind the coin counter were:
Old
Bald(ing)
Wore glasses on a chain around their neck
Now...as Bugs Bunny would say...I resemble that remark!
I had them in my store for 20 years/ the only problem was that when kids would start playing with them and a tray would come off it's pegs it would take Hours to untangle all the trays.