Caille's Cast Irony Trophy's
By Johhny Duckworth

At the begining of the twentieth century, cast iron was one of the most dominating materials used in the production of coin operated machines. These early gambling machines were typically dressed in wood with cast iron trimmings and some of the counter machines were nothing but cast iron. This transformation to an all iron case would result result in some of the most beautiful examples of victorian art ever produced in slot machines. The castings would then be finished in either nickel or oxidized copper to accentuate their beauty. These works of art would also require two strong men and a boy to carry and if accidentaly dropped, they could be very unforgiving. However, this method of producing machines would cut short since aluminum was a much lighter and cheaper and became widely used in the early 20's.

This machine has two color wheels and is very simple to play, just place a coin in the upper 5 way coin slot representing the color desired, pull down on the handle, the wheels spin in opposite directions and you wait to see if the color played will match up in the center. Most color wheel machines at the time were single wheeled in wich you would need the color played to land at the top under an arrow, same as a floor machine. In theory, this machine is the same except you want the two wheels lined up and match the color you played. You will notice on this machine that the left wheel has so many colors per inch that you feel as if the odds are in your favor. However, when looking at the wheel on the right, it shows just how unfair the machine could be since the large color spaces favored the house. It's also one of those machines you can place a bet on every color only to lose your money and not hit a winner.

I will start off with the Caille silver cup, wich sold for $75 new and had to brighten up and down saloon counter with its exquisite beauty. The name Silver Cup is boldly spelled across the bottom of the front casting and the profile of a beautiful young lady with a flowing dress adorns each side and back. She is holding above her head, a trophy with the initials CB cast into it, representing Caille Brothers. This symbol is widley known to represent a 1st place trophy and that is no doubt where the Caille Brothers wanted to be.

I have observed two different mechanisms Caille produced for the silver cup. The first model had individual slides across the front of the mechanisms, where as the second model had only one set of slides with two pay tubes to make all the payouts. This payout system also resembles the same one later used on the Caille Aristocrat. Some where after serial #340 this machine must have been a little loose on the 25 cent green payout as it was changed to 20 cents where it remained until the end of production. Another intresting change was the pay cup wich started out in the center only to be moved to the right side sometime after serial #640 but then to return sometime after #881. This may have been a bad decision at the factory since the coins had to make a hard right turn out of the pay slides to enter into the pay cup below. I even had one collector who has the version with the pay cup on the right tell me he has had the coins jam up in that area before. They were only produced in a nickel play version and the machines I have been able to track down bear the serial numbers 34, 129, 340, 593, 614, 639, 640, 690, 712, 746, 752, 881 & 4892.

The other cast iron beauty and the rarer of the two is called the Callie Loving Cup with the lady holding up a trophy except for the name change on the front and a single coin head on the top. This machine only required a single coin entry since the payoff was simply made by matching up two of the same fruit symbols in the center to win. Just like a 3 reel slot except you are matching 2 different symbols instead of three. Different fruit had different payouts, just like any other slot with the highest pay being 20 for matching 2 Silver Cup symbols. This machine also had a 4 way payout instead of the 5 way on the Silver Cup. The fruit symbols used on the Loving Cup are identical to those used on Callie's tin litho fruit strips for the operator bell. The 3 loving cups that have surfaced over the years are serial numbers 153, 156, & 161 all 3 have gum vendors.

I am only aware of the three Loving Cup's that have turned up over the years and two of them were discovered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. An old bar owner in Raton purchased them new and had used them very little if at all. They were still in their original wooden crates when found. They were also full of original Silver Cup tokens and the gum vendors contained gum from the True Blue Gum Company in Lansing, Michigan. That had to be one of the top five most amazing machines. I want to thank everyone who shared their serial number information with me as it always helps to learn a little more history on these incredible machines. If you have any serial numbers or information on these early machines you would want to share please contact me at Thanks.