Cash Register

Metal cash register made by the 'National Cash Register Co. Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A

The cash register is made of yellow metal, possibly bronze or gold plated. It is embossed metal work include large scroll like banner on the upper portion of the breastplate containing five fleur-de-lis. Outside the scroll on the cash register breastplate the ornamented changes from fleur-de-lis to with vine and leaf decorations. The backplate is equally embellished with embossed decoration. The sign on top of the cash register has a scroll-like design and reads, "Amount Purchased". The twenty three keys are flat and round, each sits atop a long lever and each demarking its value under the key rings. One key is missing. The frontispiece of the cash register drawer is also metal, pressed with the word National which is the manufacturer signature and lavishly embossed with more leaf and fern decoration. The top of the drawer is covered with a wooden slat. Originally the drawer cover would have been made of marble.

The cash register itself is a very heavy piece of mechanical equipment. The National Cash Register Company was formed and began manufacturing cash registers in 1884. The early company style was marked by heavy ornamentation and aesthetic qualities during the years 1888-1915. The company used aggressive business tactics and supplied many cash registers between these dates. It is noted for having produced 1.5 million cash registers by the First World War. The cash registers themselves helped the business owners with tracking sales and inventory. They were also an anti-theft device, in that, the registers were so heavy that it was near impossible to run off with the cash box. This register sat in the Sourdough Café in Keno. Luigi and Gina Cambiotti, the owners of the café during the 1970-80s, found this cash register in a storage shed. It is believed that it was stored their by the coffee shop's predecessor Massa Sekata, a camp cook turned business owner. Mr. Sekata was the cook for United Keno Hill Mines for many years and finally took over the café in 1949. He ran the café until 1966. Of course, the cash register predates that time. Keno was a striving mining town since the 1920s. Many Keno businesses had come and gone but the café and bar survived, albeit they changed hands regularly. It is possible that the cash register had been brought to Keno by one of the earlier business owners, most likely via Dawson City, a boom town that had been established upon the discovery of gold in 1898.