QUERY: Gottlieb Cross Town "Serial Number" ??

[jay]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Hello,

Newly posted on the ipdb are two pictures of something unusual, and I
invite opinion or comment on what it might represent:

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=601&depth=0&picno=28858

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=601&depth=0&picno=28859

I bought this game many years ago. Stamped on the front, in place of a
numeric serial number, in the same area where a serial number would be,
is the word "VIGIL". There is no other stamping, and what you see is
not a stampover.

The cabinet is just a white coat of paint, looks just like the base
coat of another regular Cross Town that I have. No webbing. The white
is worn in many places, and in those places I see no evidence that the
reds and blues stripes are underneath it, only bare wood. When I open
the coin door to examine the wood edges of the opening itself, I do see
the very faint blue residue in some of the wood edge, seemingly
matching where the blue stripes would meet the opening, just like my
regular example.

The opening does have the strike plate and coin door, and the routing
for them. There are also the normal openings for the ball serve and
shooter knobs.

Without pictures to show until now, no one I have contacted could
really speculate too far about what this might be. My fanciful thinking
wonders if there was some employee at Gottlieb named Vigil playing
around. 1966 is too long ago to expect to find an answer, I suppose.

I'll settle for theories, whether fanciful or prosaic. What do you
think? Have you seen anything like this before?

Thanks!

Jay

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

> Hello,
>
> Newly posted on the ipdb are two pictures of something unusual, and I
> invite opinion or comment on what it might represent:
>
> http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=601&depth=0&picno=28858
>
> http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=601&depth=0&picno=28859
>
> I bought this game many years ago. Stamped on the front, in place of a
> numeric serial number, in the same area where a serial number would be,
> is the word "VIGIL". There is no other stamping, and what you see is
> not a stampover.
>
> The cabinet is just a white coat of paint, looks just like the base
> coat of another regular Cross Town that I have. No webbing. The white
> is worn in many places, and in those places I see no evidence that the
> reds and blues stripes are underneath it, only bare wood. When I open
> the coin door to examine the wood edges of the opening itself, I do see
> the very faint blue residue in some of the wood edge, seemingly
> matching where the blue stripes would meet the opening, just like my
> regular example.
>
> The opening does have the strike plate and coin door, and the routing
> for them. There are also the normal openings for the ball serve and
> shooter knobs.
>
> Without pictures to show until now, no one I have contacted could
> really speculate too far about what this might be. My fanciful thinking
> wonders if there was some employee at Gottlieb named Vigil playing
> around. 1966 is too long ago to expect to find an answer, I suppose.
>
> I'll settle for theories, whether fanciful or prosaic. What do you
> think? Have you seen anything like this before?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jay

It appears that someone stapmed their name or these letters in the wood.
I bet if you sand the front of the cabinet, you will find the serial
numbers. It looks as though the word vigil is stamped over part of the
serial number as it appears you can almost see one of them in the pic. Or
you can take a knife and scrap a little paint away starting just right of
center of the coin return and ending at the right of the coin return (where
the right arch meets where the coin drops)

Good Luck

Fwed

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Jay wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Newly posted on the ipdb are two pictures of something unusual, and I
> invite opinion or comment on what it might represent:

Looks like an operator stamp to me. In recent times, there were/are
operators who would frequently remove any evidence of the serial numbers
on the games. I believe this was in part to coverup the origins of the
games due to the way distributors were set up, but maybe somebody more
knowledgeable can chime in on that. There are/were also operators who
put there own serial numbers or marks on their games to be able to
identify their own equipment. That's what it looks like to me. The
repaint job may be due to someone scraping down the original paint. If
you're really interested, I guess you could remove the siderails to be
sure. I *think* the serial numbers are also supposed to be in a couple
of other areas on that era, you may want to check inside and see if you
see anything else.

Serg