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Autosales "L" Vendor

Autosales Vending Corp., New York, NY, c. late 1890s, 32 ¹/₂". This is a great early L-vendor made of painted wood to which are attached porcelain panels that advertise what's inside. The tags in the small domed windows toward the bottom of the front panel say Chocolate, Dentyne Gum, Wintergreen Gum with Pepsin (can't forget the pepsin!), and Chiclets.

I bought this through eBay around 2005---I can't remember the exact year---from a dealer/collector who'd bought it locally-to-him and hadn't kept it long. It came in a big box with bubble wrap and popcorn, and when I unpacked the machine two coins fell out: One was a well-worn Indian head penny dated 1884, the other was a 1919S Lincoln head penny. Neither is the Holy Grail of coin collecting and neither helps offset the machine's purchase price, but it was still cool! My hypothesis is that getting bounced around in the UPS system had shaken them loose, so had I picked the machine up in person or bought it at the Chicagoland show those coins might still be tucked up in the machine somewhere, unknownst and invisible to all. It's the only case I can think of in which less-than-gentle handling by a shipper might have benefitted me.

This model has great presence, as do all L-vendors. This particular example is 100% original.