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Mystery 2 Collar Button Vendor

Probably the Price Collar Button Machine Co., c. ~1905, 10 ³/₄". This is a plated cast iron vendor that dispenses a collar button for a nickel. It's dense and has great heft for its size, which is a feature I like in a machine. The copper-flashed finish on this example is not the only thing that makes it awesome, but it sure doesn't hurt!

I was gonna list this as a "Price Collar Button vendor (rare version)" but before I did I checked Silent Salesmen Too and shazam!---there it is, listed as Mystery 2 on page 232. Mr. Enes wrote that "some people think that the Mystery 2 was made by the Price Collar Button Machine Co.," and you can count me among those people. I know that Bill always did his homework and I'm guessing he didn't come across definitive evidence that this is a Price---hence he was conservative in his description---but it's by far the most likely reason for the similarities. My gut tells me this is earlier than the more common Price Collar Button machine, and if that's correct then that makes the more common Price model the successor to the model above. If so, then Price made the more common model either as a knock-off or after having acquired a license from the original manufacturer, and at that point we start down a trail of speculation that contradicts Occam's razor. My impression that it's early is why I noted this model's date as ~1905, which is the date that Mr. Enes assigned to the more common Price model.

Here's a picture of this machine and the more common Price side by side. This sure looks like a Price, don't it? This one's a little smaller, has that striking copper-flashed finish, and has a globe that doesn't come all the way down to the base which leaves room for the collar button to be retrieved from the open area below the globe's edge, rather than from a designated opening as on the more common model.

This machine is 100% original. I saw it at the Chicagoland show in April 2022 and liked it but didn't buy it on Friday because I was distracted by other things I was buying from the same seller. When I returned on Saturday morning he had only two vendors left on his table---this and an Ad-Lee E-Z, so I guess he had a good Friday! After having slept and packed the car, and given the machine's lonely status on the table, I took another look at it without Friday's hecticity and distractions and appreciated it more than I did the day before. I bought it, which you've probably figured out by now. Whenever I start to think that maybe I don't need to return to the show on Saturday mornings, something like this happens (as it did at the previous show in November 2021, with the Rex Matches) and I remember there's a tangible benefit in going back for one last look-through with a fresh mind and new eyes.