Robert Eisenstadt's
Antique Gambling Chips & Gambling
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THESE FOR SALE
However, I can sell you a nice modern 8-sided metal put and take that looks just like the vintage ones. Click here to see them. Each is a little over one inch long, the brass one on the left being a little larger. (1) For $15, postpaid-insured, you get the one on the left: brass put and take, green velvet draw-string bag and instructions (though there are many variations of play; you can make your own rules.); and (2) for $10, postpaid-insured, you get the pewter one on the right, and instructions.) I also have these put and takes for sale ( sorry: only ones left are: the dice, the white top, and the bi-level horse racing metal tops [$60 postpaid, insured, return privileges].): click here to view them. Email me for prices. The put and take dice are catalin. The white and yellow tops are plastic (the yellow one is quite heavy; the white one is Mexican, in Spanish, comes with instructions/translation). The bi-level, metal, 1921-patent-date horse racing tops are original, but as is usually the case, the engraved date-patent info on the top is usually machined off. |
| Put & Take tops were very popular
from the 19th century to about the 1940’s. They could be
carried in ones pocket and used anytime in a bar or other
gathering place for an impromptu gambling session. Each player
would contribute chips, coins or currency to a pot. They
would take turns spinning the top. Some tops had six sides,
others eight sides. The roots of the game can be traced
far back -- four-sided
Hebrew Chanukah dreidel and Victorian England pub
games. Other web sites: Thomas' Spinning Tops Collection,
here (Arjan Verweij dice home
page), and here
(Arjan Verweij put and take page), and here . If it landed T1, T2 or T3, the player who spun it would win (take) 1, 2 or 3 chips, respectively, from the pot. If it landed with the star or “Take All” showing, he would take all the chips from the pot. If it landed P1, P2 or P3, he would lose (put) 1, 2 or 3 of his chips, respectively, into the pot. If it landed "0" or “Put All” or “All Put,” he would have to match the pot or lose all his chips or each player would have to contribute to the pot, depending on the rules. In the many pictures below are some of the over 50 Put and Takes in my collection, plus some similar horse racing and dice tops. Be sure to see the last set of pictures, which show how Put and Take tops can be rigged for cheating! |
| Pictured above are the most
common type of Put and Takes. They were usually
small, about an inch high, and made of brass. They can be
distinguished from each other in a variety of ways, as is apparent
on this page. ¶ In groups "5" and "7," above, the words are lined up with/go in the same direction as the stem of the Put and Take top. In the other groupings the words are upright/perpendicular to the stem. ¶ In group "1" and "3" the tops are 'bi-level." That is, there are two independently moving parts. In "1" the P's and T's are on the top level and the amounts (1, 2, 3, etc.) are on the lower level. Also in "1," some of the tops represent two dice. In group "3," generally the pay-off odds are indicated in the top level, and the name of a horse is on the bottom level; the horse-betting ones have the name of famous race horses and were copyrighted in the 1920's. ¶ In groups "4" and "5," the letters have no serifs (those short, fancy hanging lines at the ends of the letters), while in "2" and "7" there are serifs. ¶ The tops in group "6" are made of sterling. ¶ The tops in "2" and "4" are 8-sided. The others are 6-sided. |
| These are other miscellaneous
metal Put and Takes. A number of them are sterling.
Note the different sizes. One near the upper
left is a pin. The dark one near the upper right is
a cube-shaped metal Put and Take. Just below it is
a 4-sided top. The two at the lower right and lower left
have internal spinning dials. The reddish one near the top
has a needle and thread inside. |
| These Put and Takes are non-metal.
About half are made of catalin; others bone, wood,
celluloid and ordinary plastic. Some are bi-level. Three
of them are mechanical lead pencils that are to be rolled for
the Put and Take effect. Two of the tops are celluloid advertising
pieces -- one touts Manbeck's Bread ("A winner everywhere");
the other says "You don't gamble when you buy Trenton Crackers."
The white 4-sided one at the bottom is made of ivory. The
one next to it is 4-sided wood. The red one next to it is
plastic with a compartment for solid perfume. |
| These are Put and Take punch
boards and punch cards. |
| These are combination games
that include Put and Take (also called Plus and Minus
on one). The bottom one is made of wood. It
is, among other things, a roulette wheel. It is 14"
in diameter, was copyrighted 1933 by the Cardinal Co., Dallas,
Texas. |
| The above three pictures show how a Put
and Take can be rigged for cheating. The typed instructions
came with the rigged tops when ordered from a gambling
supply house. The scanned instructions and catalog page
are from the K.C.. Card Co.-Mason & Co. "Blue Book" (copyright
1932), which at that time had offices in eight major cities across
the U.S. Notice how the middle ones are nice and symmetrical -- straight/fair/honest. In both pictures, notice how the tops on the right are shaved on the lower right side of the "T2" face, and the tops on the left are shaved on the lower left side of of the "T2" face. Knowing this would give a favorable percentage to the user; he wouldn't always win on every spin, but would come out a winner in the long run. These are 8-sided tops. The "takes" are opposite each other (for example, opposite the "T2" is a "T3"). Likewise with the "puts." So it would work this way, using the top on the left as an example (the one where the left bottom of the "T2" face is shaved some): if you spun the top clockwise (as a right handed person ordinarily would), it would more often land on the "put" side because if the top slowed down near the "T2" side, it would continue past the extra rounded (shaved) edge and land on the adjoining Put side (or as the Instructions put it more simply: "When spun to the right, a Put will show....."). And as you would expect, on this top, all four of the Take sides are shaved on the bottom left, and on all four Put sides, all of the bottom rights are shaved. Just the opposite would happen if you spin the same top counterclockwise or the top on the right clockwise. |
| This is a close-up
of the only movie lobby card I know of that shows a put
and take, and here two are shown. It is from the 1922
silent film, "Forsaking All Others." The full lobby card
can be viewed on this page: click here,
and then look at the third picture on that page. In the picture above here,
nothing can be read from the lower left put and take, but
the upper right one's two sides can be read. You can
read them too if you look close -- "TAKE ALL" and "PUT 3." |
| This is something I just saw for the first
time -- a 10-sided put and take. It is made of brass. I
don't own it. It went for over $200 on eBay in January 2004. |
| I
don't own this little dandy. It is described as enameled
on brass, 1-1/4." It went for $155 on eBay in November
2005. |
| I
now own one of these. The one pictured above was sold
on eBay in June 2006 for $254. Seller was from United Kingdom.
The description said in part,
"This is a vintage
6-sided brass spinner (or wobbler).It
looks similar to a 'Put & Take' spinner, but is in two sections - the
top section can be spun independently to the bottom part. The top part has numbers (1, 7, 2, 5, 3, 9). The bottom part has card suits (heart, spade, club
and diamond) plus a crown and an anchor. On the top has 'Patent 33471.' It measures approx
1.25" I later acquired one
in 2006 for about $100 in a private sale. They are rather small
-- about 1-1/4" high and about 1/2" wide. The top (odds) part
moves rather freely. I learned that it takes a certain technique
to get it to spin properly. At first I thought it would never
spin. Then I got it to spin properly about 1 time in 15. Finally,
I found the technique: you have to (1) press it down firmly against
the surface, (2) make sure it is upright; and (3) then twist it. It
spins for quite a long time. |
| Here's another
neat one, not mine. Looks like the bottom, at least, is made
of bakelite. |
| This picture was
emailed to me January 2007. The sender said, " It's from 1982
and was made by a company called BOJO's. ... ..... .....
The top breaks down and you can move the tumblers off and on, depending
on what you are playing." |
| The one on the left is a put and take
spinner. Transparent plastic top. It calls itself "Whirl-E-Gig,
Spin Game, Put-n-Take, copyright 1946, printed in USA." The outside
bottom says Pat. Pend....... ... .. I don't know what the one on the right
is. It is broken some. Could have yellow catalin center, black
plastic outside. Six decals on the 6 sides: 5 of spades through 10
of hearts. Doesn't spin well at all. The center piece (red catalin
top and bottom) is loose, slides up and down and around, to no effect. |
| These are all bi-level
spinning tops. (One collector described them as : "Plated brass
two-tiered, six sided spinning top dating back to the 1920's.")
The idea was for the upper and bottom halves to spin independently. Some
were aluminum, or chrome plated.... ... ... On the put and takes, the
upper tier would tell you if you won or lost, and the bottom tier would
tell you how much. ... ... ... On the race horse tops, the bottom
tier would indicate which horse won, and the upper tier would give the
payoff odds. The race horse tops originally sold for 50-cents each
in the 1920's. The box they came in proclaimed "the pocket race course
... America's Great New Racing Game." |
| No. |
Game |
Top sides |
Bottom sides |
Comments |
| 1 |
Crown & Anchor |
1-9-3-5-2-7 |
Crown-Spade-Dia'd- Anchor-Heart-Club |
"Patent 33471" engraved on top; a
British game similar to Chuck-a-Luck, I got it from the UK. |
| 2 |
Horse Racing |
DISQ,10-1,2-1, 4-1,6-1,8-1 |
Yutoi-Envoy-Harrier- Scamp-Sicyon-Golden Corn |
"Odds On," Pat. App'd. For." Famous
British race horses, c. 1920's. (Yutoi was born 1917 and Golden Corn 1919.
In the U.S., anyway, horses raced about 2,3 4 years after birth.
Please correct me if I am wrong about that.) I got the top from
U.K. |
| 3 |
Horse Racing |
DISQ, 5-1,2-1, 8-1,6-1,4-1 |
Citation--Assault--Zev-- Whirlaway-- Man-O-War-- Stymie |
no patent numbers, etc. Quite lightwight.
Aluminum. Famous American horses. This top is not as old as the
others. While Zev was born 1920, the others were born 1938 to 45. All
the horse on this top, except Stymie (who won a record fortune in second
class races), won the Belmont stakes. |
| 4 |
Horse Racing |
DISQ,5-1,4-1, 8-1,6-1,2-1 |
Grey Lag-Colin-- Man-O-War--Morvich- Zev-Spark Plug |
no engraved names and numbers on the top,
perhaps worn away. Famous American race horses. Colin b. 1908;
the others were born 1919-23. |
| 5 |
Horse Racing |
DISQ,5-1,2-1, 4-1,6-1,8-1 |
Lucky Hour-Bunting- Colin--Man-O-War- Morvich-Pillory |
"Patented April 1921, No. 19(or 3)74243."
Famous American Horses. Colin was born 1908; the others 1919-22. Go
figure. |
| 6 |
Dice |
2-4-1-5-3-6 |
3-6-2-4-1-5 |
For craps or any other dice game. The white
thing on the top is a label. I should have scanned another side,
but didn't want to take another scan. |
| 7 |
Put and Take |
Tag (means grip, take,grab)-Pott (pot)-Satt
(to deposit,put)-Tag-Alla (all)-Satt |
4-2-5-3-1-6 |
Sweedish put and take. |
| 8 |
Put and Take |
P-T-P-T-P-T |
3-1-A-2-4-0 |
""SPINIM," PAT'D APR 12- 21" |
| 9 |
Dice |
4-5-6-1-2-3 |
1-6-5-4-3-2 |
nothing engraved on top. |
| 10 |
Dice |
6-2-4-1-5-3 |
5-3-6-2-4-1 |
same as No. 8, above, on the top -- SPINIM,
etc. |
| 11 |
Dice |
6-5-4-3-2-1 |
5-4-3-2-1-6 |
nothing engraved on the top. This top is
unusual in that the numbers go in a natural sequence -- 6,5,4,3,2,1.
Usually the numbers are mixed up as on a roulette wheel. |
| 12 |
Horse Racing |
1-1, 2-1, 6-1, 8-1, 5-1, 3-1 |
Red Fox, Fan Tan, My Pal, Jim Jo, Zev, Gay Pet (query: other than Zev, I can't find info on these horses. Are they actual race horses, what period?) |
no mfgr info is engraved on the top. Both the top (much bigger and heavier than most: c. 1.5" x 1") and the canvas layout (30" x 5") are pictured below this table. April 2008 I paid $210 total for both in the George Cross Collection live, gambling items auction on eBay. Till then I had never seen either. |
| Football teams (British) bi-level top. First
time I saw this, on eBay Feb. 2008 |
Upside-down lettering on brass put
& take. Never saw this before. Maybe no one else did either,
as I got it for $14 on eBay, March 2008 |
| I saw this on eBay March 2008 -- top has 8 sides.
I could make out these sides: 1/M, 24/P, 13/P, 10/P, 36/P, and I think
12/P. Description: " RARISSIME ET ANCIEN JEU DE COMPTOIR !! - Jeu de
bistrot de la fin du XIXème - TOUPIE ROULETTE BTé SGDG - Roulette
de comptoir, 8 facettes (voir photos) - Jeu d'une très grande rareté!!!
, très bon état, tourne parfaitement, hauteur : 1,5cm - BONNES
ENCHERES !!! -" |
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