Bussoz Distributeurs Automatiques

An early French arcade token

The token

Script: Latin

Lettering:
DISTRIBUTEURS
BUSSOZ
AUTOMATIQUE
THEVENON & CO

This token is very decorative, with a lot of pretty design and nice font. This helps reinforce the romantic notion I already had of Paris in the early 1900s: Sitting in a cafe, eating pastries, relaxing and generally looking like a Monet painting. I’ve written about it previously with this Cafe Copin 12 1/2 Centime Billiards token.

As is common with French numismatics, this token is “Coin” orientation – that is if you hold the top and bottom and rotate the coin, the design on the back appears upside down. If you hold it left and right and rotate top to bottom, the deseigns on each side appear right way up. This 30mm brass piece is the same on both sides, so I’ve only included one image of it, but there is another piece further down this post.

Early slot machines

This time, we’re perhaps in the corner of a smokey establishment down a laneway, gambling.

Pierre Bussoz (1872 – 1958), was a manufacturer of early slot machines in France. Much simpler than the machines of today, his earliest machines date to 1901. The Americans claim the distinction of the first slot machine in 1894. Wikipedia lists a gambling machine based on poker from 1891. In France, this machine by Angélique dates to 1895. So, Bussoz’s machines in France in 1901 would still have been very new and revolutionary.

Playing the machines

What were these early machines like? Here are two machine by Bussoz from LastCenturyGames:

Image of Visible Roulette machine left, and Paris Courses machine right.

Visual Roulette: Visually the small wooden box has three coin slots and indicators for colour to the right. The machine has three reels stacked vertically, which spin horizontally. You can choose red, green or yellow.

Paris Courses: Three coin slots with the horses names above. One large reel with images of the horses is visible through a large window taking up half the box. There is a bell (I think) on the front as well.

Both machines have a coin return slot on the bottom left, and a keyhole on the left to open the machine for servicing.

From the LastCenturyGames site, the description for Visible Roulette (1913) reads: “Insert a coin of 10 cents in the chosen color , turn the handle. If the roulette stops on your color, you win a token for a drink (the same value as indicated on the wheel)”.

The description for Paris Courses (1909) is: “Bid on the good horse (Dandolo in red, Vasistas in white, Negofol in black). The horses turn most and move faster and suddenly stop on the winner horse. A token for a drink to the winner!”

Other manufacturers

Bussoz was not the only manufacturer of such machines. LastCenturyGames lists at least 16.

Script: Latin Lettering: DISTRIBUTEURS AUTOMATIQUES LE DENTU THEVENON & Co

This token, again with “DISTRIBUTEURS AUTOMATIQUES” around the top and bottom is by a manufacturer called “Le Dentu”. I can find several references to machines with this name such as on arcade-museum.com, but not as much information as on Bussoz.

WorldOfCoins.eu has some more information and images of Le Dentu tokens.

Bussophone Jukebox

Pierre Bussoz didn’t only make arcade machine. He copyrighted the Bussophone in 1923. This machine was an early ancestor of the Jukebox. In 1928, he gave the rights to the American Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. WorldOfCoins.eu has several tokens from these machines. Jukebox Guide has several images of Bussophone machines.

One more

Script: Latin

Lettering:
DISTRIBUTEURS AUTOMATIQUES
CH JOURDE PARIS

Here is one last piece which I think is likely related. This one is zinc and medal alignment. It again has “DISTRIBUTEURS AUTOMATIQUES” but does not have a company name. In the corners of the scroll it does have “CH JOURDE” on the left side, and “PARIS” on the right. Numista lists Charles Jourde as a mint in France, although without a lot of additional detail. Pieces listed as produced by the mint are largely local or “A CONSOMMER” type pieces.

Coin of Note