Before smartphones and sophisticated electronic gadgets a child might have found wonder in something as simple as a gumball machine.

Upon leaving a bank or a thrift store youngsters would beg their mothers for a few pennies in order to feed a glass globe filled with bubble gum. Many would have guessing games as to which color of gumball would dispense.

While such see-through globes filled with gumballs dotted many businesses in the 1950s and 1960s, commercial gumball machines are scarce these days, most of them landing in the hands of collectors who want a relic from the past. For some, it’s a chance to relive childhood days when a penny could buy you plenty.

“It’s kinda surprising,” says Dean Huffman, an antique dealer who frequents the Urbana (Ohio) Antique Show and Flea Market each month. “I started collecting gumball machines 20 years ago and interest started to wane gradually, but now there’s a bit of a peak of interest in these relics.

“Baseball cards have seen their peaks and valleys of interest, so have china, stamps and coins. I never thought I’d see a resurgence in gumball interest but I’m seeing them more and more at these shows here in the Midwest. They’ve vacated the stores that once housed these penny and nickel machines and they have peaked peoples’ interest.

Credited as the “father of gumball machines” and the earliest known manufacturer of these contraptions was New Yorker Thomas Adams. In the 1860s, Adams began researching the possibilities of making a rubber-like material from the sap of a tree called Manikara Chicle. The tree is native to Mexico and Central America.

Adams failed in that attempt, but he learned that a chewing gum could be made from it and dubbed his first product “Adams’ New York Gum No. 1,” which was sold as small spheres wrapped in colored tissue paper.

By 1888, Adams developed a coin-operated vending machine to sell sticks of his popular Black Jack and Tutti-Frutti gums for a penny apiece. His machines were easy to fool (with the use of slugs) and quick to jam, but their strategic placement on the platforms of New York’s elevated trains, general stores, smoke shops and pubs made them a definite success. Adams considered his machines a ’silent salesman,’ working 24 hours a day.

Adams’ first vending machines were made of metal and wood and were not very attractive. But by 1907, Adams Sons and Company designed a more efficient, attractive machine that dispensed spherical balls of gum. The machines included claw feet, florid scroll embellishments made of cast iron and glass globes that showed off their contents and kept the product fresh. The drawback? They were complex and costly to repair.

Gumball machines of the 1920s and 1930s were built using steel construction or finished porcelain enamel over cast iron, giving the device a durable and attractive appearance. A particularly collectible machine of that era is the boxy globeless Ro-bo machine (Ro-bo Sales Corporation).

“With the Ro-bo, you insert a penny and the gumball drops from a display case at the top and an automated human figure picks up a gumball and drops it to you down a chute,” Huffman said. “Any 1920s gumball machine of this nature, with such automated action, is highly sought after today.”

The popularity of these early gumball dispensers encouraged others to get in on the act. In the early 1930s a pair of machines emerged on the scene – the Hawkeye and the Ad-Lee E-Z.

“The Hawkeye was disposed of early on as they were considered a form of gambling,” Huffman said. “On the 10th pull of its lever, a bell would ring and the customer would get his or her penny back along with the gumball. The Ad-Lee E-Z had a marquee attached to the top and contained gum with paper inserted into it through a hole drilled in the center. The customer would compare the score on their piece of paper to the score on the marquee, and receive a prize from the store clerk.”

Vending machines got simpler after World War II and were made of plastic and cheaper metal like aluminum. Their mechanical workings were uncomplicated and easy to repair. By the 1950s and 1960s, many supermarkets and drugstores had gumball machines, and sported the names like Ford, Northwestern, Toy ’n Joy, Victor and Oak Acorn. Oak Acorn machines are still made in designs true to the original (Oak Manufacturing Company) founded in 1948. A later and more popular model was the Carousel, produced in the 1950s and was known for its long, slender pole-like stand.

“Many companies got into the business of both making the machines and licensing operators to set them up and keep them refilled,” said Victor Gonzalez of CollectingChannel.com. “Vintage gumball machines make great display pieces, and collectors of mechanical contraptions know that some machines can bring hundreds, or even thousands, at auction.”

The most fragile part of a typical gumball machine, Gonzalez says, is the glass globe that holds and displays the multi-colored balls. While broken globes can be replaced and machines restored, collectors pay the most for original machines in excellent condition, with original parts.

Gonzalez is quick to point out that parts are so rare than even a machine casing can command big bucks.

“The outside case for a Pulver Kola-Pepsin gum machine, with some wear and no internal workings, recently captured $1,878 on eBay,” Gonzalez said. “A restored Columbus model “A” machine, which dispenses both gum and peanuts, recently fetched the seller $382, and a 1920s Columbus 1-cent machine captured $250.”

Huffman points out that one of the more common gumball dispensing machines are the ones put out by the Ford Gum and Machine Company, which were produced between the early 1920s until the late 1960s.

“For anyone starting to collect these gumball machines, postwar machines are easiest to start collecting,” Huffman said. One problem with some of the machines is the key. Generally the key is no longer with the machine. “Locksmiths can normally make a key for you. If you’re lucky enough to run across a real old machine you might find wheat pennies, buffalo nickels or mercury dimes inside the coin box.

“Antique gumball machines are becoming increasingly rare, so you’re likely to find one with a broken globe or missing parts. Collectors who enjoy restoration often look for globes, chutes and other usable parts. One should be on the watch for reproductions and vintage machines with reproduction parts like the inexpensive and color Carousel brand gumball machines. Be careful and look at the casting to see if the item is stamped or marked as a reproduction.”