Gray 20 Coin Collector
Published: May 2011
It looks to me like a big lump of cast iron, it is a Gray #20. The #20 is the same type of basic coin box as used in most of the Gray collector. It is equipped with a very heavy cast iron bracket that attaches to the back of it and bends down below the box. It also extends out to the side forming a place for a candlestick phone to sit. The candlestick phone is attached to the coin box by 2 arms. The arms have 2 purposes, they keep the phone in place next to the collector, they also serve as a path for the sound of the coins to resonate from the bell and gong in collector to the body of the telephone and then to the transmitter. From the transmitter the sound is electrically sent through the line to operator so that she can hear what coins are dropped into the slots. This collector is not portable, it is made to be fixed in one location. The bracket can be screwed down to a shelf, a wall or inside a phone booth. Unlike portable phones there is no lock on the back. When the coin mechanism needed service the repairman would open the coin vault and remove 2 screws that secure the box to the bracket and lift it off.