I realize that at first you might think this a strange question with an obvious answer, and while I hope that is the case, I'm not sure it is...
I recently picked up an all original Cirqus Voltaire in excellent condition from St. Petersburg, FL. The guy I bought it from told me that they were the first owners of the game, and that it was the floor demo model at the factory. Given that I found a couple Brady Distributing business cards. in the game, I assume it was the floor demo at the distributor (not the Williams factory)
Other than a mechanical game counter installed on the base behind the left of the coin door (reading 18,000 plays), it was bone stock.
After about a month of looking at the cabinet while positioned along with the rest of my pins (a mixture of Stern and Bally/Williams), I noticed that the coin door on the CV was the Stern type -- NOT the Williams type.
By Stern type, I mean it has the more rounded corners, whereas the Williams coin doors are more squared off.
I began thinking that the coin door was changed out at some time. Maybe the original door was chipped or banged up and a spare door was simply grabbed off a shelf with no attention paid to the type of door used.
There was absolutely no damage under where the Williams type door would have covered in the corners. And why replace a coin door on an otherwise perfect cabinet? There are no nicks or scratches.
I went to ipdb.org to look at reference photos. http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=4059
The flyer photo shows what I believe would be the correct Williams type coin door.
However, the pictures that Allen Shope posted http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4059&picno=7897 shows a unit with the same Stern type coin door I have on mine.
My buddy picked up a CV in central Florida as well (during same trip we were on), and his was built as a German export. We doubt it ever crossed the pond because it was also pristine and in the same home for the last 12+ years. His had the triple coin door -- also with Stern type coin door.
Looking at the restorations Chris Hutchins has done, both pins in his gallery have the Williams type coin door.
Can anyone offer some advice on whether the CV pins received both types of coin doors? If so, was there a running production change? Was the one supplier out of stock and a different part substituted for a period of time?
It's cheap enough to buy a new Williams style coin door for my CV, but do I need to?
-Brian
CV-with-stern-type-coin-door.jpg CV-with-williams-type-coin-door.jpg