Mechanical Registration Toy Coin Bank by Kingsbury Mfg. Co.

The Wilkins Toy Company was founded by James S. Wilkins in Keene, New Hampshire, in 1890. The first toys produced was a toy clothes wringer as well as cast iron toy vehicles. In 1894, a 25-year-old bicycle shop owner and Keene resident Harry T. Kingsbury purchased the company. Harry had a talent for mechanics and, within one year, produced his first toy catalog illustrating 85 iron and steel toys. These included 21 different trains, one of them a mechanical wind-up model, and 16 pieces of fire equipment. Other toys included cook stoves, circus toys, steamboats, trolleys, delivery wagons, and passenger carriages and wagons of various kinds. In the early 1900s, Kingsbury kept producing an array of clever gadgets for sale in stores like JC Penney across the country and around the world. There were planes that flew, submarines that dove, mechanical banks that counted change, and clockwork replicas of every vehicle to be found on the road, complete with electric headlights.
The company made toys for boys and girls, producing some of the first toy automobiles with lady drivers. Using clockworks-style technology in his vehicles, Kingsbury’s trains and fire trucks and other vehicles could be wound up and let go to drive across the room.
In 1916, Edward Kingsbury, the elder son of the company's founder and Thayer Kingsbury's uncle -- graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering. Two years later, he invented a new kind of mechanical drill, designed to solve the problem of drilling axle holes in the wheels of the toy cars.
The drill invention became so popular that the company opened a machine tool division next door to their toy factory and began selling tools to competitors.
During World War II, Kingsbury ceased its production of toys to help with the war effort; they were making rifle bolts for American troops until the war ended. Sadly, following the war the company never returned to the manufacture of toys but continued the tool division and eventually became a world leader in the machine tool industry and a leading employer in Keene, New Hampshire.
As a major tool manufacturer, the company's products changed beyond recognition from their toy manufacturing beginnings. Kingsbury's traditions of innovation and a close-knit workforce continued into the modern era.
Imported tools and major changes in the industry caused Kingsbury Mfg. Co. to decline and the company was sold to a Rochester, NY, firm in 2012. By 2016 the factories were "no more" in Keene, New Hampshire making Kingsbury Manufacturing Company a memory.
This coin bank made by Kingsbury was part of their Mechanical Registration Banks made from 1927-1931.
These banks were made to teach children to save money by not opening until a "savable" amount was injected through the slots of the bank and hand cranked to drop into the base. This Four Coin model (takes all 4 coins) has to read $4.95 to be able to open for accessing the coins. Normally, the metal Four Coin bank would be painted in a colored finish, but this find has been stripped to its "brushed metal" base making it look more mechanical in design. Works great, no issue with mechanics as well as dial being accurate with coin denominations.
Weighs 1 pound 4 ounces and measures 7.25" X 5.5" X 2.5" -great find and great condition!

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