Bell-Fruit Games Ltd

[redwine]

BELL FRUIT / 4p / TOKEN

A strange denomination, equivalent to 9½d?

Both medal aligned and same design both sides.
Brass  4.52g  Diameter: 21.33mm Depth: 1.70mm
Alloy  4.58g  Diameter: 21.37mm Depth: 1.77mm

[bagerap]

In 1971 the stake on a pub fruit machine was 2p. (And to begin with the machines weren't smart enough to detect old halfpennies) 4p was the standard unit of payout for around three years.

[redwine]

Many thanks Mr Bagerap 

[redwine]

BELL-FRUIT / 3d / TOKEN

Same design obverse and reverse.  Medal aligned.
Brass  2.61g  Diameter: 18.55mm Depth: 1.28mm

[redwine]

Obverse : BELL-FRUIT / 6D / TOKEN
Reverse: DECIMAL COINAGE / 2½ / NEW PENCE

Medal aligned.
Brass  3.35g  Diameter: 18.65mm Depth: 1.66mm

[redwine]

Obverse : BELL-FRUIT / 6D / TOKEN
Reverse: BELL-FRUIT / 2½P / TOKEN

Medal aligned.
Brass  3.21g  Diameter: 18.53mm Depth: 1.5mm

[redwine]

Obverse : BELL / FRUIT
Reverse: TOKEN / 20P / TOKEN

Medal aligned.
Brass  4.76g  Diameter: 22.2mm Depth: 1.6mm

[redwine]

Obverse : BELL FRUIT
Reverse: VALUE 25P IN TRADE / IF OVER 18 Yrs. / REDEEMABLE ONLY BY WINNER / WHERE WON

NB There is no serial number

Medal aligned.
Brass  4.56g  Diameter: 21.24mm Depth: 1.62mm

[redwine]

Both sides: BELL FRUIT / 10P / TOKEN

Medal aligned.
Brass  8.85g  Diameter: 27.76mm Depth: 2.15mm

[redwine]

Both sides: BELL FRUIT / 10P / TOKEN

Medal aligned.
Brass  10.84g  Diameter: 27.75mm Depth: 2.3mm

Disappointingly these are the only different Bell Fruits I can find.

Not much of a dent in the 120 listed

[malj1]

The Web page of Bell-Fruit Games.

See also Re: Bell Fruit Services Ltd.

Now this one has The Bell-Fruit Group as we see at the bottom of that web page:- © 2013 Bell-Fruit Group Ltd trading as Bell-Fruit Games.

Anyway this one is a spinner the first I have seen from Bell...  rev. YOU PAY brass, 29.4mm.

Hard to know whether to place it here or with the spinners. 

[redwine]

Both! 

[malj1]

Done 

[malj1]

Here is a wonderful example of an over-strike of a Bell Fruit token and apparently struck in copper, 18.5mm. This is listed in Hayes Machine Tokens as # 49.85

It is the 3d # 49.36 struck over # 49.7 (A) and the reverse over #49.7 (F) Parts of the wording of # 49.7 show quite clearly.

Note 49.7 was struck with mismatched dies (A) and (F) - as I don't have this I am showing two other very similar pieces # 49.5 (A) and # 49.28 (F)

Another larger view of the reverse follows.

...may as well show the obverse again too!

[FosseWay]

I showed a Bell Fruit overstrike on here somewhere (it was 50 over E or vice versa IIRC) but it clearly wasn't in this thread and I can't now remember where it was. Could do with finding it and getting all the BFTs in one place....

Something I may have commented on before relating to the 50s: These are small (same size give or take as the 6d/2½p tokens), much smaller than you'd expect for the denomination, given the size of the 10p and 20p ones. They also crop up in large numbers in token lots outside the UK (specifically Scandinavia, but possibly elsewhere as well), which the others don't. I wonder whether they were made for the overseas market and 50 means something other than pence - 50 French centimes or 50 Scandinavian öre/øre would be more suitable denominations on the face of it than 50 pence sterling in the 1970s.