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Pocket Cash Register

American Cash Register Co. Pocket Cash Register
American Cash Register Co. Pocket Cash Register circa 1895

The following text comes from the fellow from whom I purchased this:

 
This is a extremely rare find! I was quite excited to find it. The name "American Cash Register Company" existed during the time that cash register companies were actually ruthless in their competitive sales tactics. Salesmen would stand outside of a competitors store and wait for a customer to come out. Then they would talk down the product that was for sale inside the store, make reference that the company was infringing on patent rights, and talk of warranties that were not existent. Anything to persuade them to buy their product instead. This happened in the late 1800's and was a race to develop cash counters (Register) in the form of nice looking user friendly machinery that was cost effective to the merchant. The "Pocket Cash Register" is an example of a product that was not exactly user friendly and did not have a place for the cash to be placed.

The user would advance the pennies to ten cents to dollars to ten dollars to hundred dollars with the finger dials on the reverse.
 


American Cash Register Co. Pocket Cash Register circa 1895


 
 

 
The example below comes from the collection of Robert Otnes.

Pocket Cash Register (source Bob Otnes with permission)
Pocket Cash Register (source Robert Otnes with permission)

 
Below is an example of the Sebastian Pocket Cash Register, also from the collection of Robert Otnes.

Pocket Register of C. Sebastian (source Bob Otnes with permission)
Pocket Register of Charles Sebastian
Patented 1898 (source Robert Otnes with permission)

 

Patent 602918 Pocket Cash Register of C. Sebastian
Patent Drawing for Pocket Register of Charles Sebastian
Patented April 26, 1898 (source Google Patents)

 
I haven't tracked down a patent for the American Cash Register Co. piece pictured at top, but I have found these others:

Several patents for Pocket Cash Register (source Google Patents)

 

The idea of these pocket registers certainly seems to have been fermenting in the late 1890s, but the devices do not seem to have generated many sales. These items are rare.

 

Links
 
Another American pocket register as well as information about the C. Sebastian register is at this site by Larry Wilhelm.

The Sebastian Pocket Register is also pictured in this interesting article on small adders by Bob Otnes on the rechnerlexikon.de site.