THE METAL-TYPER STORY
An original Standard Metal-Typer — built in Chicago, this one dating to the mid-1950s.
Our machine, on location at The Fun Factor Fun Centre — Kamloops, BC.
Still going — right here in Kamloops
This isn't a museum piece behind glass. Our Metal-Typer dates to the mid-1950s and it still runs every single day at The Fun Factor Fun Centre in Kamloops, British Columbia — where guests stamp their own tokens just like people did seventy years ago. When you order a token here, it's pressed on this exact machine, the one in the photo, and mailed straight to you.
An American arcade icon
From the late 1930s and right through the post-war boom, the Standard-Harvard Metal Typer Company of Chicago built coin-operated “Identification Medal” machines that let absolutely anyone stamp a personal message onto a shiny aluminum token — in seconds, for pocket change. Decades before you could personalize anything with a click, these machines made it mechanical, tactile and instant.
How it works
Drop your coin, turn the big dial to a letter, and pull the left lever to stamp it — then dial the next one. The dial offers the full alphabet, the numbers 0–9 and a few symbols, and you can stamp up to 32 characters on a single token. When your message is done, you pull the right lever and your finished medal drops into the cup — often with a “GOOD LUCK” four-leaf clover pressed into the back.
Where you'd find one
They were everywhere people gathered: penny arcades, seaside boardwalks, amusement parks, train and bus stations, and the five-and-dime stores like Woolworth's. From Ocean City to Crystal Beach to the Wisconsin Dells, you'd walk away with a custom keepsake — a luggage tag, a sweetheart's name, a lucky charm, a souvenir of the day.
The machine itself
A tall, narrow oak cabinet — about 18 inches wide and roughly five feet tall — topped with a hand-painted tin marquee, a mirror, and that unmistakable green dial of letters flanked by two chrome slot-machine handles. Built like a tank — yet today very few remain available to the public anywhere in the world, likely only a handful.
A collector's piece
Original Metal-Typers are prized by coin-op collectors, and a working one the public can actually walk up and use is rarer still. Ours is one of the very few left.
“Stronger than ever”
The Metal-Typer was sold to arcades and shops as a no-fuss money-maker — no electricity needed, every disc a tiny branded souvenir.
An original Metal-Typer sales flyer — “operating since 1938, and now stronger than ever.”
The simulator above is a faithful re-creation of our real machine. Design your token, order it, and we'll stamp the real thing on the original mid-1950s Metal-Typer in Kamloops — then mail it to you.