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Lips

Friedrich Schlegel, Leipzig, Germany, c. 1930's, 21 ¹/₂". I didn't know this model existed until I saw one at a friend's house. It struck me as a neat machine and one with presence, and I remembered for several years afterward that I liked the machine even though my memory of its specific look and features faded. Then one day we were talking on the phone and he said that while he was decluttering he'd run across one that he'd tucked away several years earlier. That's the one shown above, which he was kind enough to sell me. The bottom of the base is made of cast iron, and the sides are made of painted sheet metal, and the top of the base---the part the globe sits on---looks to be a thick piece of steel. The lid is nickel- or chrome-plated, but I can't tell if it's made of thick sheet metal or cast iron. The machine overall is very solidly built, and as you'd expect from that, is heavy.

I'd forgotten how big this model is until I opened the box it came in. At nearly 22" it's taller than most traditional tall-globe machines such as the Advance Climax 10 or the Hance Standard Rex, but in this case the height is mostly base, not globe. The globe is quite large compared to, say, a #9 Columbus globe, but it's not really tall and it's not sleek as are the traditional tall-globe machines.

The machine has "Lips" in quotation marks embossed on one side of the base, and underneath that is embossed "D.R.G.M." in smaller letters. It has 2 chutes on opposite sides, and one coin entry and one turn handle. For the first several years I owned this machine I figured the explanation for this design was revealed in the 2 metal tags affixed to the sides of the machine, but they're in German and the only German I know is "Ein bier, bitte." One day another collector---an American who lives in Denmark and speaks German---emailed me the translations to these tags, and the mystery was solved. The 2 tags and their English translations read as follow:

Deposit 10 Pfennigs
In case of mechanism failure, slide button to the right
The use of slugs in this machine is punishable under Article 265 of the Reich Penal Code

To dispense:
Left, turn knob to the right
Right, turn knob to the left

The example pictured above is 100% original (albeit incomplete) except for the paint and the lock. I think the paint is a semi-old repaint, but has some chips that suggest it might have been used after painting. I find it interesting that the "ebay Lips" has exactly the same color scheme as the one I have, which suggests that either this was an original color scheme, or the 2 machines were at some point owned by the same vendor or collector, who painted both the same. Other possibilities exist so I wouldn't take either of these to the bank, but I think those are the most likely. The Lips that my collector-friend kept, which was the first one I ever saw, had its original paint and it was an orangish-red, completely different from the ones shown above.