| 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: here (Arjan
Verweij dice home page), and here (Arjan Verweij
put and take page), . 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. I have one set of rules where a land on "0" would mean just that the top passes to the next person. 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. Towards the bottom of the page, I show some put and takes that I do not own. Be sure to see the sixth picture below (the one with the three red celluloid tops), which show how Put and Take tops can be rigged for cheating! Some of the tops spin easier than others. For tops that are difficult to spin, try this technique: you have to (1) press it down firmly against the surface, (2) make sure it is upright and still; and (3) then twist it. Experiment with your top. |
| 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. ¶ 6-sided ones. 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. These are invariably 6-sided put and takes, and they have words (like "put two") on the sides, not short-hand "P2", "T1," etc. ... ... ... 8-sided ones. In the other groupings the words are upright/perpendicular to the stem. These are invariably 8-sided put and takes. The 8-sided ones also invariably (but not always) have a star on one side (meaning "take all"), a "0" on another side (meaning put all or all put), and short-hand P2, T1, etc., (not words) on the other sides. ... ... .... I find that the 6-sided ones are more common than the 8-sided ones. ¶ 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, like the letter "T" here), 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. |
| Things to look for in cataloging
your Put & Takes: 1. material of the tops -- all metal, all plastic, all wood, etc., or combination of materials. 2. number of sides -- 6 or 8, usually. 2a. words/letters read with the stem being upright (invariably, 8-sided put & takes) OR with the stem held horizontally (invariably, 6-sided put & takes). 3. words (eg., "take all") OR letters (eg., "TA") on the sides. 4. smooth handle/stem OR knurled/serrated handle/stem. 5. do the letters have serifs or not? 6. when you read words on the sides (almost always the six-sided ones) is the handle on the right or the left? (It is almost always on the right.) 7. solid put & takes, OR bi-level ones (very rare -- see tops #7 and #8 in the large table below). 8. are the words/letters printed, engraved, or embossed (rare)? 9. the particular words/letters on the sides and the order they are in. |
| 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. |
|
I own a pair
of Put and Take dice like these. Mine are made of French
ivory, a type of plastic like celluloid where an imitation ivory
grain is printed on the dice. On the standard Put and Take tops
there are different rules for "PA" or "AP" -- the spinner can put
up one unit or match the pot, or all the players might have to put
in chips. Here there is no doubt. One die has on its
sides: P, P, T, T, Take All, and Every Body Ante. The other
die says: 1 2 2 3 3 4. |
| Put and Take Punchboards |
|
These
are Put and Take punch boards and punch
cards. Rules: most non-Put and Take punch boards were so many cents per play. For example, on a 5¢ board, the player would put up 5-cents, and the reault would be losing it, winning $.05 (thus breaking even), or winning $.10, $.25. $1.00. etc. But Put and Take punch boards were a little more complex/varied. A typical one would have the player risk not a single amount, but rather risk 1 to 5 pennies. Each punch would mimic a regular Put and Take game. The player would punch one of the unpunched spots and follow the instructions printed on the punched paper: put up (give to the house) 1 to 5 pennies, or win (take from the house to add to his stake) 1 to 5 pennies or more, sometimes up to $1.00! |
|
This
neat little punchboard has a picture of the whole family enjoying
a put and take game!. The seller describes the punchboard
as " Unused 1935. Board is 6" by 4-3/8" by
5 /8" full color printed, boys and girls playing dreidel game,
with spinner, 300 punches, green, red and white boarders.
Back has game title Put & Take, Gradner Guarenteed Salesboard, serial
numbered, operator number, guarenteed, Made by Gardner & Co
2209 Archer Ave Chicago. Has punch, paper cover, split
, punch present. Has red, white, blue, NRA
Eagle Member US, for national recovery act, 1935."
|
|
Nice little Put & Take
punchboard. It went for $17 on eBay, August 2010. To play
with puchboards like this one, the customer would have to have at least
5 cents because if the punch resulted in a loss for him (a "put"), he could
lose anywhere from 1-cent to 5-cents. If he won (a "take"), it would be
from 5-cents to $1.00, as noted on the board. The eBay seller described the item as: " Antique Punch Board, unused. "Odd Pennies Put and Take". Board measures 6 1/2" X 6 3/4" and is just over 1/2" thick. Board has rounded corners with light wear along the edges and corners from storage. Metal punch is still factory sealed in the back and the model/serial # sticker is intact." |
| 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. |
