Gray 11 Coin Collector
Published: January 2011
Happy New Year everyone! This month we will look at 4 different Gray # 11 collectors in my collection. The Gray #11 is usually mounted alongside a wall phone and connected to it by a bracket. The sound of the bells and gongs are transmitted through the collector, the bracket, the phone body itself and to the transmitter so the operator can hear what coins are dropped. In some instances such as when used with a handset phone a small transmitter is secured to the rear mounting plate. Just a note, I also have a Gray 11A, the model is the same as the Gray 11 but it has a larger coin box to hold more coins.
This first example is the earliest one I have, it has very short tabs (you can see in the last photo where the telephone company found it necessary to have the coin denominations marked with paint). The original instruction card is an embossed brass plate.
This second example is a newer one. The denomination of the coin chutes is inscribed into the 3 tabs. I am showing it as it would have been seen in service attached to the bracket and to a wall telephone.
This example is an original (NOS) Gray #11 in its original box. You can see the way it was packed, the original box and shipping label. The last picture shows the rear of the collector, this rear cover/plate isn’t the type that would mount behind a wall telephone. It is the type that would mount independently and be connected to a handset phone. There is an AE transmitter mounted to the inside of the plate (not pictured), you can see the grometted hole in the back where the wire would go through to connect it to the telephone.
This example of the #11 is the #11A, basically the same as the second example I showed you but as you can see from the pictures that the lower vault area is extended allowing it to hold more coins than the basic model. The coin drawer or door front is the same but the vault is deeper, the length of the drawer is greater. The instruction card on this example is celluloid. You can clearly see on this one what the mounting bracket for a wood wall telephone looks like.