How many different manufacturers of 5 cent coin chutes/mechs and how many different configurations of these were there on woodrails during the 1950s? I have seen several different types on some machines I have, including variants of ABT and Heath (two each), and an unlabeled one and I have also seen some mechs from United on other machines. I assume that some chutes I have are original ones and others were replaced at some point, but am just curious about how much diversity there was in these things.

Please feel free to post photos if you have different variants or makes of chutes.

Below are some photos of some of the different ones on my machines.

Here are exterior and interior views of a two variants of a Heath with different internal configurations (one with a latch and one with a small paper clip like rod that keeps the small main door of the mech closed):
00F9810F-5577-402F-B03F-1688AEDB56E4 (resized).jpeg997BAD2F-8914-4E15-B7FC-CA6A0C40DCB1 (resized).jpeg5D0C7B6A-7F15-48AE-AE63-68012837CD75 (resized).jpeg2C3F99CC-CB8C-48B3-9C02-0F54AC21A4E0 (resized).jpeg

Here are exterior and interior views of an ABT chute:
437493EC-0AC4-4B99-BABF-6E7B0E7D96D7 (resized).jpeg1BDF9432-35A7-4684-91AE-7C5EC1428651 (resized).jpeg6E5A2FC2-9333-4F15-AA05-814D6570C415 (resized).jpeg

Here is one without an indication of the manufacturer on the exterior chute:
571EDD1E-0473-4B17-B091-29D2A0FF6F8D (resized).jpeg2B6663C7-E704-42BC-BE90-248E9AA1B9D6 (resized).jpeg85357752-BA39-4EE9-9F6B-F358071F31EA (resized).jpeg

And here is another ABT:

0EFBA02A-B474-40A7-8298-E2B374295CC3 (resized).jpeg

260C42E3-5CBB-4227-B037-62FEC33BB6FE (resized).jpeg

3A6F8E96-C083-4BD3-B47D-F62E48DAFE6E (resized).jpeg

Thanks for the info Ken!

Here are a couple more photos of variants of the exterior parts of Heath nickel chutes (one with side hole and one without):
00F57E78-4570-4993-8F58-82F839D42327 (resized).jpegABA91E25-966F-4669-90B1-BE26E5CDBDE4 (resized).jpeg

Thanks for the input Tim--that's too bad about the lost tooling! There's a little bit about the association between Heath and Monarch on Monarch's website:

"In the early 40’s, Mr. Mitchell Hall bought the company [Monarch] from his father & his fathers partner, Lindel Myers. Soon after that, he began working with Ed Heath, who established Heath Sales of Macon Georgia as a company to market Monarch products to the manufactures. For the next 35 years, this arrangement, based on a handshake, and mutual respect, saw Monarch grow and become an innovator in coin mechanisms."

https://www.monarchcoin.com/about-monarch-coin/

Also, here's a link to Ken's post from a few years back on the disassembly of and parts associated with a ten cent Heath Drop Chute (which is similar to the five cent ones except presumably for the size of the hole in the face plate and the position of the coin rail in the interior):

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/heath-drop-chute-information-and-disassembly